Apokalupsis Eschaton
by Shamera
Summary: Ten million people decided to remain on Cocoon, until one day they all disappeared without a trace, leaving residents on Gran Pulse bewildered and terrified. Kinematics-verse.
1. Day 1

**Apokalupsis Eschaton**

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_The revelation at the end of the æon or an age._

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* * *

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It was all over the news the morning that they lost communication with Cocoon.

Maqui had been getting ready for school like every morning, now, rushing down the stairs to catch Lebreau and Gadot standing in front of the holo-vid, looking especially somber and grim. He hadn't needed to ask any questions to know that something bad had happened.

According to all scans and vehicles that had been journeying back and forth between the two worlds, every living soul on Cocoon had suddenly just disappeared from the airwaves.

Cocoon had once been a bustling world supporting over thirty million in population... but that had been before the Purge, and before everything had gone downhill. Planet-fall had seen a third of their numbers dead, and even after, less than a ten million people had decided to stake their lives down on the world below. Everyone else who had grown up fearing Pulse with every fiber of their being had stayed on the dead planet of Cocoon, trying to live off the remnants of civilization and hoping to rebuild the world from the ashes of the old one. It was a hard life for those who stayed in Cocoon, but they had the familiar comforts and energy was not hard to harvest- it had probably been easier to live up there even in the dark than to live in the light of Gran Pulse, where the population was constantly in danger and lives were taken every day from the civilians who didn't believe that the lands would drown them if they so much as looked away.

"You're staying home from school today," Lebreau had said to him, voice hushed and serious even as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a brief, tight hug. "Gadot will go get Hope as well. His father's probably going to be busy for the next few days figuring this out."

Thirty million people on Cocoon before the fal'Cie had decided that the sacrifice of everyone would make a good present to the Maker. Around twenty million by the time Cocoon fell out of the sky. Now... with the sudden disappearance, less than ten million people were to be accounted for in the entirety of both worlds.

Maybe the fal'Cie were succeeding, after all.

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* * *

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It wasn't two hours later when just about everyone was huddled together in one house, even Dahj looking serious as people stared at the holo-vid announcing the news once again. It was a beautifully sunny day in the Vallis Media, yet no one could see it past the gloom of realizing that half the population had just disappeared.

"I don't like this," Serah was saying quietly in the back, hands tight around the phone she kept dialing. "Where's Claire? She hasn't called in at all, and she said she's give us a call the moment she got any information about what's going on."

"I'm sure she will," Snow tried to reassure her. "She'll get through. For all we know, this might be a huge prank that someone pulled to stop the communications system."

It didn't feel like a prank, though. The gravity of the situation felt as heavy as it had been to Maqui when he first found out that Serah was a l'Cie and trapped in the Pulse Vestige. As heavy as when he found out that Snow had been turned into a Pulse l'Cie as well.

"There are at least ten million people living up there," Sazh tried to placate them. "Now, ten million people don't just disappear into nowhere, right? I'm sure there's just some sort of satellite malfunction or something. These things are always shortin' out now that the fal'Cie aren't powering them. We just gotta make do. I'm sure the military are sending up some cameras to find out what happened- give it a few hours and we'll all see that they're all safe and sound and we're being huge worry warts, is all."

"Think they're overreacting?" Maqui whispered to Hope, leaning in closer to the other boy. The silver haired teen shook his head, though, expression as grim as ever even has his eyes were still glued to the holo-vid screen as the news announced that they would keep the general populace updated with whatever information they could find.

"Think they'll send Light up there with the squad?" Hope asked, the question not really directed at anyone. "Maybe that's why she's busy right now. Could be why she can't call back yet."

Serah reached out instead of answering, pulling Hope closer to her in the same manner that Lebreau had hugged Maqui that morning.

_"-and in recent updates, the Guardian Corps are attempting to make contact with home base to find out exactly what went wrong at 0750 this morning. They will soon be sending out troops up to Cocoon to check for disaster or power outages. Our best wishes go up to the families up in the mainland and we will do our best to supply them with whatever food and water is necessary for the duration of their crisis. I repeat, our current updates for the situation on Cocoon-"_

Gadot reached to turn the holo-vid off. "Alright, that's enough. They've only been saying the same damned things over and over again for the past half hour now. Might as well be listening to some kind of radio broadcast for all they're saying. Don't know how much I'd trust the military to be able to contain the situation on Cocoon if there was indeed some sort of power outage there. We've barely got the supplies for ourselves down here, how the hell are we supposed to support everyone living up there, huh?"

"We can't, that's what." Lebreau shrugged. "But we'll offer anyway, and they'll most likely refuse help because they don't want anything to do with Pulse or even the settlers that came to Pulse. My bets? They'll just turn the soldiers away when anyone reaches them, all convinced that they can do this without help. None of them want to be contaminated with Pulse _germs_."

Serah hugged Hope closer to her, and the group waited.  
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* * *

It was another three hours before Hope received a call from Bartholomew, telling him to stay put with the rest of them and that he wouldn't be home for the night... and possible the next few nights after that as well.

Maqui hadn't been able to make out the details, but he could hear Hope whispering vehemently to his father from the other room, and could tell by the boy's posture that he didn't approve of Bartholomew's decisions. Dahj had fallen asleep on the couch, and everyone was talking in whispers so not to wake him up.  
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* * *

It was almost nightfall before they heard anything from Lightning, and even then, it had been nothing but a clipped message reassuring them that she was fine, and something about Lindzei's nest. Hope had retreated to the guest room after he had heard that, and even the rest of the room had gone silent, although Maqui was sure that it was because Sazh and Snow actually knew something about what she was saying.

Snow had taken a few minutes to think and then talking quietly with Serah before he nodded and requested from Gadot, "How many transport vehicles do you think we have to spare right now?"

Gadot looked at Maqui pointedly, and the teen shrugged. "About two dozen, maybe? I've been fixing up some of the stuff we salvaged off what was brought down from Cocoon and some of the older parts here already on Pulse, but... well, I've been a bit busy with school lately." He felt sheepish saying that, but Snow had approved of his decision to go back to school (even before he had admitted that Bartholomew Estheim had requested he look after Hope at the private school they attended) and everyone had accepted the longer time period for Maqui to fix things up now that he had homework to deal with again.

"Can't take that many up with us anyway, man." Sazh told Snow softly, and the blond man sighed.

"Wait, what in Pulse are you talking about?" Lebreau demanded, hands on her hips. "Don't you dare think you're keeping anything from us again, oh fearless leader! We're a family, and we've already done this crap before. You want to start something, you better tell all of us what's going on."

Snow was stubbornly quiet even as Serah looked at him curiously, and it wasn't until Hope's voice came from the kitchen that the silence was broken.

"Lindzei. We've heard that name before. It was supposed to be the one who created Cocoon at least thirteen centuries ago. At least, that was what Fang and Vanille tried to explain to us. It's what people down here on Pulse believed, anyway. But we never encountered a Lindzei before... never even heard of that name before recently."

Snow coughed nervously, and everyone's attentions was turned to him. "We don't even know anything for sure yet. But if there's still something up on Cocoon that could be endangering the people... well, we gotta check it out, right? Being the heroes and all."

"Do you even have to ask?" Gadot asked with a laugh, slapping Snow over the shoulder. It seemed like they were the only ones who could take each other's rough-housing, seeing as everyone else would have doubled over from such a playful hit. "So what are we up to this time, oh fearless leader? Gunna find our own way up to Cocoon and check it out? Leave some supplies for people?"

Snow looked like he was about to affirm this, but then he looked down at Serah for approval, which made the girl smile. She nodded at him, knowing that it was what he wanted to do, and he grinned back. "What are we waiting for, right? The heroes will be there to the rescue!"

Maqui cheered along with the rest of Team NORA and Serah and Dahj, although he noticed that Sazh looked appropriately embarrassed and Hope... was silent in this endeavour.

"You in this with us, Hope?" Maqui asked quietly, voice covered by the loud planning that was already going ahead. He focused his attention on the younger boy beside him... not that it was a hard thing to do for him.

Hope just nodded, although he didn't look enthused. "Yeah, of course I am. If people need help, then... we should help them, right? And I'm pretty sure Light already knew that's what Snow would do, anyway."

"That's right, so there's no worries!" Maqui said cheerfully. "We won't get into trouble for what we're doing from her if she already knows!"

Hope just smiled. "That's not how it works, Maqui."

"Sure it's how it works." The older teen stretched a bit and then jerked his head toward the directions of the door. "Wanna help me prepare the transport vehicles? I don't know what Snow's planning it, but he usually likes it big and flashy." It wasn't like they wouldn't be debating over their lack of a plan for the next few hours, anyway. It had been like that ever since Snow got married to Serah, and he stopped charging into situations without a plan. Had something more important to him than being a hero waiting for him back home, he'd explain.

Hope just nodded again, although he followed along as they walked toward the garage and away from the excited planning (or was it really just yelling?) in the house. Sometimes Maqui wondered how their neighbours could stand them, and then he'd realize that the yelling was probably the reason that most people decided to build a few houses length away from them instead.

"What's on your mind?" Maqui ventured as they entered the garage and he pulled the large door closed behind himself. The place was as messy as ever, seeing as he hadn't had time to clean up before this morning, and he had been in the middle of disassembling a vevlocycle the past week for its gattling guns and hovering capabilities. The two of them hadn't too much time to just talk about things lately, seeing as everyone was always so careful with what they said outside. The only times they could really talk had been at Hope's house, or even Lightning's... or just in the garage.

After he had realized that the Estheims were presenting themselves as a flawless image to the rest of society, Maqui had taken a few days to study up on whatever EMP devices he might be able to scrounge up, and within a week had covered his garage walls with gadgets that would ensure nothing foreign got in, and nothing foreign could get out- least of all sound signals that could be tracked by radio and cellular waves. Everything they talked about in the garage would be completely private once the door closed.

"Nothing." But the sigh that Hope gave even as he plopped down in his usual seat claimed otherwise. "It's just... nothing. At least, not much."

"C'mon, you know we can talk here." Maqui claimed cheerfully even as he grabbed his box of tools and waved a spanner at the younger boy. "What do you think about the whole communications thing going on this morning, then, huh? I mean, that's got everyone spooked- think ten million people really did up and disappear all within the same minute this morning? Just... poof! And gone?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Hope muttered under his breath, but shook his head before Maqui could ask what he was talking about. "I don't think we'll be able to get big transport ships up there, Maqui. At least, not the first trip around. If Sazh can get any sort of word in, we'd probably have a recon mission first to make sure that everything's safe. For all we know, something really did manage to kill ten million people up there- and the only thing that can kill that fast is some kind of airborne virus."

"A virus? C'mon, Hope, the fal'Cie would never-" Maqui trailed off in his words when he realized what he was saying, and attempted a few coughs to cover it up, even as the younger boy gave him a pointed look. "Right. Okay. So that's a possibility. But we can't exactly send an unmanned ship up there to check it out, man. Not even Sazh can pilot that remotely- especially with the chaos that occurred during planetfall? Uh-uh, no way. We're definitely sending someone up in a ship, so we gotta make sure these things work, then. Maybe one that's airtight... that ought to do it, right?"

"No. We'll just need someone to get a close enough picture on what could be happening up in Cocoon, and then they'd send one person up onto the planet in a bio-suit and a camera to see what's going on." Hope got up from the chair. "We won't need any of these vehicles yet right now. But we'll need to get hazmat suits."

"Wait- Hope, hey, wait a minute!" Maqui dropped his box of tools even as Hope opened to door to the secondary room of the garage, where he left all his spare junk. He would have just kept it outside if it hadn't been for the realization that the weather was unpredictable and would wear away at all the spare parts and equipment. Not to mention if some creature manage to get into the settlement... they were pretty close to the edge, after all, and the chances were much higher there than anywhere else...

"We'll need a camera." Came Hope's voice from the other room, slightly muffled as he shifted through items. "Something that can tell temperature, what's in the air, etc... I don't know, you've always been better at the mechanical aspects and terms than I've been."

"Yeah, so you should let me handle- whoa!" Maqui ducked as a small gear nearly took his eye out. "Where are you throwing that?"

Hope looked up, sheepish. "Oh. Sorry."

"Yeah, you should figure out by now that I'm always going to come following you, so throwing things behind your shoulder isn't a good idea," the blond grumbled.

"Well, that's what the military's going to find out," Hope went straight back into look for things, looking unapologetic. "And they're going to send someone up there to check it out, so we could just wait until the news gets a hold of this before we try and launch a mission ourselves."  
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* * *

Truth enough, six in the evening prompted the holo-vid screens on again as the newscaster spoke about the Guardian Corps's attempt to fly a shuffle up into the barren planet, and there being absolutely no one to greet the man there.

The images came back in crystal clarity, and there was no denying that there was definitely something wrong. There was no chaos in the streets, no power outages. The communication system was working just find when he manned it up there, and even the houses looked like a meal had just been left half eaten and cold.

"Now that is spooky." Sazh commented, even as he hefted Dahj up higher while they watched the broadcast, the little boy clinging to his neck. "Who would just up and leave in the middle of breakfast?"

From what it looked like, nothing else had disappeared other than the people and animals. No missing machinery, clothes, food, or even energy losses recorded during that time period. The man had reported the air and water to be perfectly safe, but was going to refrain from going back to Gran Pulse for the next twenty four hours in case there had been something he hadn't picked up, and even after that the GC had reassured the people that he would be contained and quarantined for a week to ensure he carried no hazardous chemicals back with him.

"We're going to write notes for you," Lebreau said to Maqui and Hope after the broadcast. "You're not going back to school the next few days. We're going to find out what happened, and we're going to need every brain we can. Although," She swatted at Maqui's head. "Yours is debatable."

After the obligatory protests, Maqui had huffed and practically dragged Hope back to the garage by the hand, already knowing all too well that the adults weren't going to start their important conversations until they were sure that the kids were safely out of range. Besides, there were things that he wanted to talk to Hope about. Like Lindzei, and why the other teen didn't think they'd need the larger transport ships.

After he closed and locked the garage door again to ensure that no one would be able to listen in to _their_ conversation (did the others think that they'd be only ones discussing important things?), he waited for Hope to take a seat in the overstuffed chair he left in the garage just for the other boy before sitting down as well, nervous and anxious at the same time, knowing there was far too much that the younger boy knew.

"They're not going to let us go with them." Is the first thing that Hope revealed, looking somewhat irritated about his conclusion. "Getting out of school or not, they're going to make us wait here and monitor the news or some crap like that to let us feel involved. That's them wanting us safe but out of the way."

"Hey, it's not so bad staying behind from combat," Maqui tried to object, although he felt almost timid in the face of Hope's irritation and determination to do something about the situation. "It's better than getting in the way and having someone injured because they were trying to protect us instead."

"Not when we can do something to help, though." Hope sighed and closed his eyes, leaning slightly against Maqui and making the blond tense up.

_Calm, calm,_ the older teen could feel his face heating up. Hope was just used to contact with people he trusted, and it was great to understand that the younger boy trusted him as well. No sudden movements. All he had to do was keep his arms to his sides.

Holy shit, the stupid overstuffed two-seater sofa he had gotten for the garage was the best idea he ever had in his _life_.

"We can still do things down here to help them," Maqui spoke up, hoping that his voice wasn't squeaking. "If they need people to monitor the situation down here. It's not always about being on the front lines of adventures, you know."

"Yeah, I know." His tone was still irritated, and Maqui could sympathize. He had always been the one left behind as well, although he never really had too much problems with that, being in the background as he was. He was the mechanic, after all, he stayed back to take care of the equipment. And the one time he hadn't stayed back, he had still been in the background, the back-up in case anything happened.

Hope had always been on the front lines, and despite being pushed to the back all the time, he must have been used to it. Maqui had a hard time imagining what it would be like to be on the front lines all the time, and then to get used to it...

"We'll provide back-up," Maqui tried to appease him. "In case anything happens... they'll have someone here who will know what to do, and then we'll be able to do something about it- it's a really important job!"

Hope sighed, but looked more placated. "I guess. Either way, we won't be needing the transport ships. There's a much faster way to get to Cocoon."  
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* * *

Later on in the evening, Lightning finally returned home, Serah immediately going to her sister with tea and warm food, making the older woman smile as she accepted the offered gifts.

"Any news on what happened?" Sazh asked quietly. He had put Dahj to bed not half an hour ago, and no one wanted to wake up the little boy with their worries about what was going on. The entirety of the settlements on Gran Pulse was waiting with bated breaths for news from the motherland, and their little group was no exception to that.

"No more than what was said on the news," Lightning returned, her tone clipped. "General Amodar wants a private squad up there before the population gets up in riots about the situation. It's to be kept down low; no broadcasts."

"So what are they saying, really?" Yuj asked, making the soldier glare at him for questioning. He backed up slightly with his hands raised in surrender. "Just asking!"

"They're saying that we'll be the ones going in." Snow answered for him. "Small team, right? Undercover? Not going to be missed? That's us!" He had a grin all the while, undermining the seriousness of the situation. "This time we just have to be the heroes that the world doesn't know about. Get in and investigate what's going on."

Lightning just nodded in acknowledgment. "We'll be getting suits, but no transport. Keep it quiet. We head out at sunrise."

"No transports... how are we even supposed to _get_ to Cocoon, then?" Lebreau asked, folding her arms. "I know Maqui's got a good number of ships, but there's no way we'd be able to get up there without attracting the attention of everyone- everyone's staring at Cocoon now, you can't just sneak a transport ship up there."

"Teleport spots." Maqui spoke up, having walked into the room in the middle of the conversation. He was quiet, finally having gotten the information out of Hope before the other boy had retired back to his designated guest room to finish up his homework and to give his dad another call. Lightning looked at him sharply, but Maqui was too tired to respond to her properly. It had been hard enough trying to get the information out of Hope, and the other teen hadn't been reluctant to give that information up. It had just been hard to get into the situation where Hope would tell him what was going on.

"That's how you're going to do it, right? You guys have teleport spots back in Cocoon."

"Hope told you." Lightning pursed her lips, scowling lightly.

Maqui just nodded, not bothering to deny anything. Of course Hope had been the one that told him, who else would tell him anything?

Lightning stayed silent for another few moments, eyes narrowed him at him, but decided to turn her attention to the others in the room who were waiting for her explanation. "He's right. We have ways of getting up to Cocoon. We'll be taking those teleport points in order to get up there and do some investigating of our own."

"And when are you going to be divulging this information to us, huh?" Gadot spoke up, looking irritated. He stood in the doorway to the kitchen, tall and looming over the rest of them, with a glare directed at Snow. It was strange, seeing as Gadot almost never got mad at anyone, least of all Snow- Maqui could remember during the Purge when Gadot had been behind Snow's decision all the way in just about everything. Team NORA had spent their time saving people and giving Snow headway so that he would be able to head into the Pulse Vestige and get Serah. To save her.

Even now, Serah had a calming hand on Snow's arm, supporting his decisions as well.

"Look, we never thought it would come up, alright? It wasn't exactly something I could bring up in a conversation, 'hey, guys, I know ways to get to Cocoon without taking any of the transport ships-'"

"You could have told us! Fuel and power are getting more and more scarce, and if there's something that we can do in order to help everyone else... bring people up and down, bring and give supplies..."

"Then what? Would you have made these public knowledge?"

"And since when have you wanted to keep something like this to yourself?" Gadot snapped back, looking truly intimidating. "Since when you have hoarded something as precious as a teleport point between Cocoon and Pulse all to yourself?"

Lightning stood up straight from where she had been leaning against the wall, expression thunderous. "Since these teleportation points were once people, alright?"

Silence struck the room, and Maqui just quietly took a seat, wondering if Hope was going to rejoin the conversation. The one good thing that had always come from Hope and Dahj joining the conversation had been that everyone had always been so much more mild around them- making sure not to lose their tempers or yell.

"...People?" Lebreau asked, although she was much more quiet now, one hand against her lips in contemplation. "What are you talking about?"

"They used to be Cie'th," Snow explained, although his voice was low and serious. "Cie'th who wandered of hundreds of years until they finally gave up and turned to stone... and for a price, for the completion of their Focus, they would teleport us to where we needed to go- certain points, certain places. Not all of them can do that, of course, but some of them retained some power from when they had been l'Cie, and turned this power into something else."

"So they..."

Lightning cut Lebreau off. "That's why they don't need a power source and no one's discovered them. They're just the stones that are lying around that we're requested not be harmed- because they were parts of cultural history. But they're more than history- they were once people."

"And we'll be using them to get up to Cocoon again." Sazh finally cut in. "You see why it's hard to bring up in a conversation? Because I do. I didn't agree with everyone else's reactions when they wanted to keep the Cie'th stones a secret, but I do agree that we shouldn't be using them for our own purposes. Especially to everyone else."

"And they won't respond to anyone else." Snow said. "It's like... no one else can hear them. And they scream." His voice was uncharacteristically somber, leading the entire room to quiet.

"We heard them only because we were once l'Cie." Lightning cut him off. "It's possible that they still respond to us because they can sense that. Doubtful other people would be able to use them."

She nodded, though, when the others took their time to digest the information. "Snow and I will head out tomorrow, then. Sazh and Hope will be our back-up team."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Maqui protested, his tiredness dissipating when he heard that. That wasn't fair! He had been entirely prepared to stay behind with Hope... they were always the ones who were left behind, mostly because they were the kids. "You're taking Hope? Then I'm going with you!"

"I don't think it's a good idea to take the kids," Lebreau protested, hushing Maqui. "Either of them. Gadot and I will come with if you need a back-up team. I'd rather Yuj and Maqui stay behind as well."

"That isn't fair!" Yuj protested immediately, and Maqui agreed as well, throwing his own verbal protests in there. "We're not kids! We're just as invested in this as everyone else here- you can't just leave us behind like that!"

"This isn't like the Purge," Snow said, his voice firm. "It's not a do or die situation- and we need people here to moniter what's going on. We'll have two teams. One to go up, another for back-up. You guys are going to stay here and take care of things on this end, no objections."

Lightning was frowning, though. "If we're going to have three people on the team, I'd rather have Hope with me."

"Hey! We just agreed that the kids were going to stay here!" Lebreau protests, which let out another string of protests from both Yuj and Maqui as well. "They're staying here- they're going to make sure that no one finds out about the expedition, right? Just how many suits are the military willing to lend, anyway?"

"Sis, I don't think it's a good idea- Bartholomew will never allow it-"

"I won't leave him down here as the sole target if any of the residents here get it in their head that attacking a former l'Cie is a good way of getting results back on the Cocoon incident. Serah, they don't know about. Dahj is a hero for Cocoon. If the three of us go up, Hope would be the only one down here for them to target. I won't have that."

"You can't!" Maqui protested, standing indignantly from where he had been seated previously. "You can't just leave the rest of us behind, then! If he's going, then I'm coming with as well- you can't say we're kids! That excuse doesn't hold out if you're going to take Hope with you."

"I don't have time to _babysit_ you," Lightning snapped at him, eyes flashing. "What I need is experienced soldiers with me up there-"

"You said you weren't going to turn him into a soldier," Lebreau protested before Maqui could speak up, her voice just as firm. "That excuse won't hold up when you bring him into danger-"

"Would everyone please just... calm down." Serah's voice cut in, clear as ever. The room fell silent as she sighed, knowing better than to interrupt the most precious member of their group. "We won't get anything done if we're going to keep arguing. So let's start with the basics."

She turned to Lightning. "How many suits are the Guardian Corps willing to part with for this mission?"

The older woman remained stubbornly silent, but that didn't last as Serah's gaze refused to relent, and the soldier sighed. "As many as we need. We'd have enough for everyone in this room if we needed it."

"And would you rather have teams of two or three with you?" Serah continued to ask, voice calm. The others started to protest again, but she just held up a hand and they fell silent. "This is her mission, and I trust Lightning to know what she's doing. She gets to decide who she wants there with her."

That seemed to shut Lightning up as well and she looked more thoughtful. "The original plan was for teams of two. But... if one member of the team were to go down, it would be useful to have someone else there as well to pick up the slack. That way is there's an injury, then we'd still have a someone to fight as well as someone else to support the injured."

The soldier sighed, looking more reasonable now that she was getting a chance to speak her mind. "I won't relent on my idea- I want Hope in the other team. He has the expertise and field experience, and I need as many hands as I can get."

"You'll have plenty of hands!" Lebreau couldn't seem to contain herself anymore on her opinions. "He's a _child_. And I don't care if he was a former l'Cie or if he has the field experience that you need, he's just a kid now and he shouldn't be pulled into missions like this- we don't know what's up there, or what's going on. Ten million people just suddenly disappearing? We don't know if there's a fal'Cie doing this or a virus, or anything at all. If you need hands, I'll all up for volunteering to help. Just _leave the kids out of it_."

"You have no right to say anything about whether Hope gets to go or not!" Lightning snapped. "As this is my mission, I'm deciding who gets to go-"

"Yeah, and if Hope's going, then I'm going, too!" Maqui pipped up.

"Stay out of this, Maqui!" Lebearu shouted. "You're not going, and neither is Hope!"

"Guys!" Serah raised her arms to calm everyone down, keeping them up until she saw that people were willing to at least seethe silently. "Please. Let's just let my sister talk. We'll debate this over once she explains her reasoning, alright?"

"I _don't_ need to be questioned like this," Lightning said sharply. "This is my mission, and my parameters. I should have known better than to let _Team NORA_ into this discussion at all. Seems like it'll be two man teams after all." She gave a sharp look to Snow before turning on her heels to march up the stairs. "If you're still with me on this one, Snow, then you'll have to contact me later. Without _them_."

And with that, she marched up the stairs, footsteps light and uniform, unwilling to bely her agitation and irritation. There was no doubt in anyone's minds that she was going up to take Hope back home... at least, over to the house shared by Lightning, Serah, and Snow.

And as much as Maqui wanted to continue his protests with the soldier, he was aware that it was a completely fruitless endeavour. Lightning wasn't going to listen to him, especially right now when she was already up to arms about being contradicted.

"Don't even _think_ about it, Maqui!" Lebreau snapped right before she stormed into the kitchen, slamming the door behind her before banging cups and drink mixers around. It was just her way of working out stress, the teen knew, since the kitchen was pretty much her territory... even if Gadot was a better cook.

There was silence in the room for a moment before Yuj spoke up, "Dude, what just _happened_?"

.

* * *

"What are you going to do?" Yuj asked before they headed to bed. "They can't just leave us behind like that, can they? I mean, Lebreau's always up and at it about us still being kids, but we're not _kids_, man. That is not cool. Haven't we proved ourselves already out on the Hanged Edge? We saved everyone! We kept people safe, and we didn't even get injured- took down all those Sanctum bastards like they were _nothing_. And now we're going to be left behind while everyone else was volunteered for the mission up to Cocoon? Even Hope gets to go!"

"Man, it's not that bad to be back-up, you know." Maqui protested tiredly, although he didn't really have his heart in his words. At this rate, he was certain that Hope would get his wish and not be left behind while he and Yuj would be the ones left behind by everyone. For some reason, it had been much easier to stay behind when he knew that Hope would be there as well.

"What, you're going to just stay behind while Hope goes up there?" Yuj demanded, seating himself down in the chair in Maqui's room, the place little more than a closet, really, seeing as the other boy never really needed much space (his space being in the garage) and Yuj always needed a bigger room for all his fashion accessories. "You going to let him go up without you?"

"And what am I supposed to do?" It wasn't as if he wanted to go up in the first place- Maqui was a _mechanic_. He was part of Team NORA, yeah, but he knew his own limits; knew what he could and couldn't do. He was great with the rest of Team NORA, but even then there were times when he didn't want to do the hero thing- of course, not while he was doing it, though. The adrenaline would cheer him on, and he'd be proud to protect people, but...

Getting into Sergeant Farron's way? That was plain old suicide.

Yuj stared at him for a moment, completely blank, before his expression twisted and he demanded, "So you're seriously going to let the love of your life just... march up there and possibly get killed because you're too scared to face off against Lightning Farron?"

"He's not the love of my life," Maqui grumbled, head down as his cheeks flushed red. How fast did information travel, anyway? Just because Lebreau and Yuj knew about his... _crush_ didn't mean anything. "And anyone with common sense wouldn't face off against her."

"Snow did. And he's still standing- in fact, he's on such good relations with her that she wants him as part of her team." The blue-haired teen grunted as Maqui didn't respond to that. "Probably because, I don't know, he's actually willing to stand up to her, and he managed to win her respect."

"I'm not Snow, okay," Maqui grumbled. He remembered wanting to be just like Snow, and a part of him still did- the older man was awesome in every way, and he always managed to get things to happen the way he wanted them to, but... even Snow had been arguing that they should just obey orders earlier. What happened to the premise of Team NORA, anyway? This wasn't want was supposed to go on- Snow wasn't supposed to back Lightning before he backed Lebreau! And he wasn't supposed to keep secrets from them anymore.

"Yeah, but I still remember the Maqui that wanted to be just like Snow." Yuj stood up again in a huff. "And I don't know, man. I kind of liked that kid better than the one I'm staring at right now."

The older boy exited the room without a backward glance, and Maqui just glared at his desk, wondering what in the world had gone wrong that day. It wasn't as if Team NORA hadn't stood up against disasters before. Every family had their share of fights, right? But he had Yuj had never really seriously disagreed on anything before, and he hadn't wanted things to fall apart like this.

What was that supposed to mean, anyway? He still wanted to be like Snow- Maqui hadn't changed that much. He just grew up a little and saw that maybe Snow wasn't always right, that was all. Snow kept secrets as well and made mistakes. He always managed to get through them, but that was because he was _Snow_, and that was him, and Maqui wasn't like him. He always got into trouble when he tried to play the hero, especially around Hope.

First with the crash, and then with the kidnapping. Sure, things had worked out, but this time everyone was completely worked up over this mission to Cocoon. Everyone had people they knew back there, after all. Even Maqui had a few contacts there- distant friends who had wanted to stay in Bodhum for fear of the Pulsian sun. People he had gone swimming with before and gone to parties with even if he wasn't anywhere as close to them as he was to Team NORA.

"They're not the only ones hurting, okay?" He grumbled to himself even as he flopped onto bed, staring up at the darkened ceiling after he turned out the lights. "Everyone's got people they know up in Cocoon..."

He wasn't stupid enough to not know that Snow, Lebreau and Gadot were probably still arguing downstairs. What had Team NORA come to? They had been such a tight unit... when had they started arguing like that?

If this was what it was like to be a grown up, Maqui wasn't sure he entirely wanted to grow up. He wasn't in a hurry, after all.

Maybe, he hoped as he closed his eyes, things will look better in the morning. Either he woke up and realized that the entire day had been a dream, or people wake up and realize that they still loved each other and wanted to apologize for being such jerks.

Either way, he was done with the day.

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**End day 1**

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* * *

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**AN:** So I figured taking it slowly might be a good idea instead of putting it all out with within a week or two. XD So this time, you guys get to experience how slow I actually write! I know, I know, it's a terrible idea. ^^;; Honestly, it's mostly because I roleplay on LJ every free chance I get, I think. But this should be a longer series, more plot-driven and serious and darker than the previous stories. Here's hoping people will stick around for this one! The whole thing should probably be only three days long, but the next two days of this story will be a lot longer than chapter one, that's for sure. Probably spread into parts or hours.


	2. Day 2, part 1

The air was glistening with what could be snow or ice or crystal shards, pieces glinting though what looked like a haze. Smoke? Fog? The world looked like it was made of white; white on white haze, too difficult to tell things apart. Shadowy figures danced in the background, a myriad of hidden enemies in every corner, just waiting to spring out to attack.

He couldn't tell what was going on; why he was here. Only the feeling of wandering, exploring endlessly and looking for something. Searching, searching; but for what? He couldn't remember. There was something important. Something that he was supposed to do. Something that he was meant to do, but failed. What was it?

Endless wandering. Just one foot in front of the other, dragging himself forward, ever searching.

Something... something...

A sharp sting of cold, and he flinched back, yelping as he recognized the _blizzara_ spell. The pain and the cold breaks him from his stupor, allowing in a rush of rage as he searched through the mists for the perpetrator. What attacked him? _Who attacked him in his search?_ Didn't they know- didn't they understand that there was something important he needed to do? He couldn't die before it was over. It was _important_!

But his healing spells felt muted to him, and it was far easier to use his rage and attack his surroundings. His ravager spells would take care of this enemy, would expose the monster from the fog.

Another spells shot at him, the cold burning into his bones, reminding him of when he had first learned his spells as well. Blizzard had been one of the first ones, and he had used it relentlessly as a new l'Cie, taking sadistic pleasure in the ice dancing at his fingertips, following the path he ordered it to, writhing and surrounding enemies who screamed under the ice until their voices froze over.

It had been disturbing and disgusting and the first few times he could have felt the bile in his throat, but there had also been a deep welled satisfaction in knowing that those people only deserved what was coming to them. It was their fault he was a l'Cie in the first place; their faults that his mom had died. Had the Sanctum not forced the Purge- had they actually handled the situation in a smarter manner than attempting to kill everyone in the city, then maybe everything would have been okay.

He could feel that same hate and satisfaction within himself now, pulling on his fire spells to combat the ice, determined to melt whatever spell came his way. He would melt the world if he had to; the ice and the fog and the crystals in the sky, burnt away by the flames of his need to find-

To do something. Something he couldn't figure out.

The fog and ice recoils at the heat of his anger, screeching and rolling out of the way to expose people in front of him, standing at a distance. The Sanctum? Were they here as well, having followed him into this world of wispy dreams?

More _blizzard_ spells spun toward him and he flinched back, not from the painful cold, but realizing the those standing in front of him, their faces drawn and tight and holding various weapons... they were all people he knew. His team, his friends. And standing at the very front of them all, one arm raised and a l'Cie brand glowing on her arm to summon her magic...

_Mom._

And this time, the spell hit him harder than anything he had ever felt, freezing through his lungs and heart, frosting over his brain as he stood in stunned silence, desperately drinking in her face and her expression of... of _nothing_. Like she had steeled herself for something she didn't want to do, but had to anyway.

And the _brand_. There was a brand on her arm, just like his. A brand so close to opening, so close to the very end stages. A little bit more, and she would be all out of time. She would turn into a monster.

_I'm sorry,_ she seemed to say, although that determined expression never changed and she never opened her mouth. _I'm sorry. This is my Focus. This is what I have to do. More than that, this is what is right._

And he dropped his spells even as he could feel her charging her own, reaching for her with both hands- hands, he saw soon enough, grotesquely deformed and covered with crystals. Crystals and crystals jutting out from his arms, mutating flesh into an atrocity. Into a Cie'th.

You failed, she continued to say, although in truth, she said nothing at all, never even looking him in the eyes. You failed your Focus and they brought me back to stop you from killing everyone. You're a monster, Hope. You're not my son anymore.

And the accusing eyes of everyone he had known- everyone who had smiled at him and laughed with him- stared from behind her, no one saying a word to him, but instead there to witness his death.

And that _blizzara_ spell, the very same spell that he had used against countless monsters and used to delight in their pain and death, swirled to life around him, clinging to the crystals that he was now made up of.

No, he wanted to scream. No, this wasn't right! All he wanted- all he wanted was to avenge her. All he wanted was her back, and there, and happy. He wanted the people who had a part in her death to pay, and pay, and _pay_. He wanted them to hurt and freeze and die just like what was happening to him right now. He wasn't a monster- he wasn't!

He opened his mouth to scream this out, and yet what came out was a monstrous roar, shaking the ground and the air and his fading heartbeat. It was him screaming his denial and his rage and helplessness, begging for her look him in the eyes _please_ and say it wasn't happening.

And he continued screaming until his vocal cords froze over, and his vision frosted over into a bleak whiteness.

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* * *

.

He opened his eyes to the white of the ceiling, body surprisingly relaxed after a dream like that, although his mind felt like the aftermath of a storm. Hope had to spend a few seconds untangling his hands from the blankets, having fisted them in his sleep so tightly that he could barely feel his fingers. He sat up smoothly, a few minutes before even his alarm was going to go off, and took a deep breath. They'd be going back up to Cocoon today, to the crash site of Eden where the world had ended.

It only took a few minutes for him to get changed and ready for the day, although the coldness of the dream didn't fade away, but rather attempted to linger in his bones even as he kept his hands under burning water, trying to warm himself up.

A dream. It was just a dream. Just another one.

Hope wasn't sure that he wanted to be at the front lines at the expense of everyone else arguing. He knew he was good enough- and honestly, he was sick of hiding what he could do and how much he had grown up from everyone around him. He was sick of playing the weak kid card so that the rest of the citizens down in the settlements would look kindly upon his family- the child who had lost his mother in the Purge, had been unwillingly selected to destroy Cocoon, and was now finally reunited with his father who was trying to create a better life for him.

It was all true, of course, but it was in the details where the story went wrong. He wasn't that helpless child that did nothing and he hadn't lost the magic that had been gifted to him upon becoming a l'Cie. He was capable of protecting himself... Bartholomew's lawyer had thought it to be a perfect idea to play up Hope's image of being a small, pale child who could hardly take care of himself... and while all the information that had come out in public light had been true to an degree... it wasn't _him_ and he just knew that his mother would have protested even a part of him being suppressed like this.

That was why he needed to go on this mission so badly- Hope had to prove, just to himself, that he could still do things. That he wasn't the child that he had been publicly played out to be.

He understood Light's decision to keep him on the team. It was a decision he wanted for himself. They were l'Cie, and for a few months, they had all been so in sync with each other that even now knowing Light's thoughts was easy and he knew exactly what she wanted from him in this mission.

With Fang and Vanille gone, supporting that empty Cocoon, he and Light were the only healers left in their group. Strategically, it would be best if Hope was placed with Snow, and Light with Sazh. They covered the most roles that way, with each team having a physical attack, magic attack, support, and healer. And it helped that this way, they would not have to hide their abilities and their magic.

Serah knew, of course, and so did Dahj. But without the brands, neither of them had been able to further develop their own fledgling magic skills. But other than them and Bartholomew, the only one who knew the former l'Cie still kept their magical powers was... Maqui.

Hope sighed at the thought of the other boy. He didn't understand why Maqui was so accepting of him, but was grateful for him never the less. It was nice being included in something, even if he knew that he wouldn't be a part of Team NORA. It just hit too close to home for him, and he wanted to remain at least a part separate in that.

Besides, Light had already sat him down and talked to him about legalities and issues should anything happen with his father. She would take him in, and if something happened to her, then Snow and Serah were next in line. And then Sazh, because the group of them were the only ones who would understand the difficulties of living in a world that despised you for something you had tried to prevent; for saving their lives.

If something happened to all of them... Light's tone had been haughty, but she claimed that Lebreau and Gadot would not leave him on his own, even if she hadn't talked it over with them. She had been sure of it. It was a small sample of her trust in them, although he knew that she would deny it.

_Passed around like a sack of potatoes,_ a small part of his mind had sniped, but that thought had been crushed as fast as it formed. _No_. It was just that they had back-up plans for their back-up plans, that was all.

And if something had happened to _everyone_, which had actually been a good probability seeing as the lot of them all worked in dangerous fields, then she had arranged papers for his own emancipation; because she didn't trust their budding government to look out after him. His father had set up accounts for him if anything were to happen, and even set up a place in Oerba should the group of them need to get away from the settlements.

It wasn't easy knowledge to bear.

But he had it. All those situations swarming through his head of _what if_, and the consequences of each action.

This new world was dangerous, and in a different way than when they had been on the run. In this world, the citizens and the people you trusted to be good neighbours could turn on you in an instant, and people were far more unpredictable than animals or even the fal'Cie. People were devious. People held grudges and made plans and some had no scruples- and even the ones who did... well, scruples are easy to wear down, especially in an unforgiving world like this.

Bartholomew had spent many nights talking with Hope about that, finally talking to him as a person and not as some child who needed to be protected from all the evils of the world... to make Hope understand that while everyone could be good... everyone had the potential to turn on others like sharks as well. It was good to trust in others like Nora had always taught Hope to do... but at the same time, never trust too deeply unless you knew them well enough.

It was a lesson Light had thought Hope failed when he confided in her that he had told Maqui... because he needed to tell _someone_ who could understand and who wasn't part of their original group. He just needed someone who could accept who he was, and knew he wasn't helpless. He wanted a friend he could actually be himself around, and Maqui had never backed down from Hope's requests. The other boy had been thoughtful and considerate and so much closer to Hope's age than the others. It hadn't felt like talking to an adult or an older sibling, but more like talking to a friend and peer. The other boy had been steadfast in Hope's whirling world of chaos.

And with the incidents that led up to them going to the same school together... Hope still hadn't worked any of that out yet. He wasn't sure if he could, or if he even wanted to think about it at the moment. Besides, right now, what was the most important was the mission that Light had proposed.

She trusted him enough to pick up the slack, and there was no way he was going to let her down.

He had barely been able to sleep through the night, so excited by the prospect of being part of something important the next day- this wasn't like when he had stepped onto the Pulse Vestige... that time had been a horrible idea and he had practically done everything in the heat of the moment, unprepared and still hurt from the events of the Purge.

This time, he was prepared, and not about to let things go awry. He knew how to do his best, and he wasn't going to back down from anything. He wasn't scared anymore, and he was ready to prove that he could pull his own weight and not hold anyone back. He wasn't going to be left behind, and he wasn't going to be a liability.

So he had already been perfectly awake when Light came to wake him up in the morning, looking surprised that he was already dressed and ready, just taking a moment to tie on his customary scarf which had been a gift from his mom- she had always been the fashion conscientious one, making sure he fit in with all the other kids at school. She had cooed over it before in the shops, having insisting that actually going shopping was better than browsing catalogues online. He had never liked it, but had never been able to deny his mom little things like going shopping, so he usually just sighed and bore the attention when she fawned over what he could wear. Sometimes it was exasperating, because it almost felt like she wanted a girl instead.

Still, the scarf had been a gift because she insisted the color was the same as his eyes (which were the same as her eyes, really) and that he always looked more cheery in bright colors anyway. So he just went along and wore it all the time, knowing that it made her just a little happier to see him with it.

_I hope you're still happy with me, mom,_ he thought to his own reflection as he looped the soft fabric behind his neck and then tied it at the front underneath the bulk, staring at the reflection of his eyes; her eyes. _And that you're proud of how I grew up._

Lightning had walked in then with toast and juice, but paused for a moment with a peculiar look on her face... almost as if for a moment, she had been looking at a stranger.

"You're up early," She stated, sounding only slightly surprised even if she didn't look it.

"You said we'd be leaving early, right?" Hope asked back, murmuring his thanks as he accepted the glass of juice and toast. "I didn't want to slow anyone down."

Lightning got that look on her face again, one that Hope could never figure out, even as she stated, "You're not slowing anyone down, Hope."

Hope only nodded in agreement, hoping that he would prove her right. He didn't feel like it, but he wasn't ready to let Lightning down. He had been briefed on the mission last night after she had rushed him home, talking about what they would be doing, and even asking for his opinions on the matter. He appreciated that more than even he had imagined- to be let in on the information, and trusted with his thoughts. He hadn't been able to do enough for everyone while they were l'Cie, Hope felt, because he had always been the weakest, had always been the one pushed behind the others because he just couldn't take the hits. Instead, Hope had strategized. He planned and planned and created back-up plans and made sure to notice things that once couldn't have been noticed without the help of librascopes. He worked out formations and weaknesses and combos that would take specific monsters down, and kept an eye on what staggered them, on how fast they staggered and how long they stayed down for.

It was, he felt, his biggest contribution to the team.

It took only a moment before they were headed down the stairs, the silence slightly awkward in a way that it hadn't been for a while. He couldn't figure out why, but had a feeling it was probably something to do with the current mission at hand. The events that occurred yesterday had everyone on edge, and he wasn't sure what was going on with the world right now. All he knew was what was going on in front of him, and that was what he wanted to concentrate on at the moment- he didn't want to think about the implications of having ten million people suddenly disappear. Everything hinted too much of a errant fal'Cie still in Cocoon planning on bringing back the Maker.

Snow and Sazh were waiting for them downstairs and Hope had to clench his jaw when he realized that everyone _had_ been waiting for him despite the fact that he had tried his very best to be up early. He knew the plan- it had been edited the night previous around the kitchen table. They were going to go up all at a time to make sure they would stay together. The report had come back to the Guardian Corps that there wasn't anything in the air, although they were still going in the suits just in case. Lightning had demanded it, especially seeing the look on General Amodar's face when she said she needed a suit smaller than what he had.

And once again, Hope had managed to burden himself just by being a part of the mission. He was just... going to have to work extremely hard in order to make up for everything.

"We'll have to hit the edge of Vallis Media in fifteen minutes since we're picking up the equipment and making sure that no one is awake and out to see us off." Lightning said, her voice clipped and abrupt as usual. "We'll get there and onto Cocoon within a minute- don't want everyone else to find out about the Cie'th stones. Everyone currently thinks they're just statues; let's keep it that way."

"You sure about this?" Sazh spoke up, his question directed at Lightning, even as he darted a glance over to Hope. The boy hung his head so that his hair fell over his eyes, already feeling his face heat up in embarrassment. He knew exactly what they were talking about- he had heard it the night previous how Lebreau and Light had their disagreement on whether he could go or not. He was glad that Light had chosen to let him go, though, despite everything.

"Are you doubting him?" Light's voice was dry even as she strapped in her gun-blade to its pouch. "Because I don't."

"Now, I'm not saying that and you know it, soldier," Sazh protested, and then he directed his voice at Hope. "You've always had our back, Hope, and I'm not saying you ain't suitable for the mission. I just think you ought to have that normal life we all worked so hard for. You're a kid- you should worry about school and grades, and hell, _girls_- rather than whether ten million people just suddenly died from a disease or a fal'Cie up there."

"I'm fine," Hope tone was hard as well, matching up to Lightning's. "I can do this. This is more important than school or girls, anyway. I'll just worry about that when we come back, right?"

Sazh pursed his lips and didn't say anything to protest, although the teen could tell that the older man disapproved of the decision. It didn't bother him too much in spite of everything, though. Hope was going to prove himself, and then the others would understand that he could pull his own weight, just like Light did. He wasn't going to be left behind.

"If there are no more objections...?" Light didn't wait for a response before she walked out the door, giving Serah a brief kiss on the cheek on her way out, the younger Farron having stayed silent and out of the way the entire time. Sazh followed after, and Snow kissed his wife before whispering something in her ear that made her smile and heading out as well, suspiciously quiet on Lightning's decision.

Hope made to leave as well when Serah moved to stop him, and he turned toward her in confusion. Surely she wasn't going to tell him that he shouldn't go, as well?

But she just smiled at him when he turned and patted down his shoulders in a manner that reminded him sharply of Vanille, her expression somewhat sad even as her hands lingered on the familiar orange cape-let. It had been the last thing he wore when he left Cocoon, and he felt it was only fitting that was what he wore underneath the hazmat suit they were going to get later.

He remembered feeling awkward in the girl's presence when they had first finally gotten the chance to talk- after all, it was because of Serah that Lightning had gone on the Purge train to begin with, and the reason why Snow fought through soldier after soldier. She was the most important person in their lives, and he hadn't known what to feel that day when they had all been reunited, before Hope had found his father again. From all of Snow's stories, Serah had been the most amazing girl on the planet; on both planets.

And meeting her properly that first time, he realized that he had fallen haphazardly into her little family- and that his most important people were her most important people as well. It had been hard at first, seeing as he didn't have a reason to avoid her so that he could think things out- she had immediately sought him out to thank him for being with them on their trip... and Hope had remembered thinking that it wasn't exactly a voluntary thing at the beginning of the trip. But Serah had continued to be sweet and kind and willing to take Hope in when he was in doubt, until there was just no possible way he could think ill of her.

"Hope," Serah put her hands lightly on his shoulders, looking slightly sad. "I know you want to prove that you can do everything that adults can do, but don't push it, okay? We know you're capable- Light knows you're capable. Otherwise she would never have requested you on this mission."

"I know," He told her. He was proud of it, too- that he could be useful in some manner. It had taken a lot of arguing the night previous with his father for him to come with, as well, but Hope had managed to convince Bartholomew that everything was going to alright. He was going with the others, after all, not by himself. And he was going to do something useful. He had felt antsy ever since the end of their Focus and returning to their so-called normal lives. It just made him realize all the more that he wasn't really normal at all anymore, was he? But he understood what she was saying- it was what everyone else was trying to say. "I'll be careful."

She looked slightly conflicted when he said that, but nodded anyway. "I know you will be. You'll take care of Light too for me, right?"

At that, he grinned. "Of course!"

She smiled back, and then patted his shoulders again. "I'm sure you'll do fine, then."

She looked like she still had something else to say, but refrained from saying any more and Hope didn't press her, even as he smiled at her in response and turned away, now wondering why she had stopped him in the first place.

Over the horizon, the sun was starting to show its first signs of awakening, peeking over the mountains with curling tendrils of light.

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* * *

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He shouldn't have been surprised to see Team NORA waiting for them, along with a squadron of soldiers from the Guardian Corps, despite Lightning not officially being in the ranks anymore. But he was surprised, and his eyes flickered over to Maqui, who looked tired and unhappy about the entire situation. Snow must have compromised and given in to at least have the rest of the team see them off, even if Lebreau still looked furious (and Hope wasn't entirely sure why).

A glance over to Lightning showed that she hadn't been expecting them either, if her tight and irritated expression was anything to go by.

"Snow," She accused irritably, and the taller man just shrugged, not bothering to deny it.

"We're good at what we do," He said simply, and nodded over to the others. "And they're good at helping. It never hurts to have more help, Lightning."

Hope just passed a somewhat guilty look to Maqui, remembering their conversation yesterday about staying behind and how the blond had said it was a good thing, and Hope had disagreed so vehemently- not when he could do something, not when there were still magic in his blood, and when sitting back and doing nothing at the Hanged Edge had been the reason... well. What if, what if.

Lebreau was dressed strangely, not in her usual purple and white attire, but instead with a comfortable outfit and her hair tied up as if she were getting ready more movement rather than for the attractiveness of her clothes. The barkeeper frowned, obviously upset, but spoke up as well, her tone steady. "I asked Lieutenant Amodar if he could spare the extra suits, and he's agreed. Three-man teams are the best way to go. Gadot and I are going up with you." Her frown deepened, although she appeared to take no notice of Lightning's bristling disapproval.

"You are not authorized to change the plan," Light's tone was low and tight, obviously angry that the other woman was going to challenge her plans. "This is my mission, and I get the final say on what goes."

"You already got the final say in the important subjects," Lebreau argued back, not giving an inch. Her eyes flashed over to Hope for a moment, and then back. "I'm just bringing the back-up in case things happen to fail."

It was tense, and Hope squirmed where he stood behind Snow, not sure what was going on. He had never seen the dark-haired woman go up against Lightning before (heck, he rarely ever saw anyone go up against Lightning, period. Maybe Fang a few times while they were still rushing to complete their Focus), and he was starting to realize that maybe Maqui had been right all those times he complained about Lebreau being scary.

"It's been authorized," Amodar spoke up somewhat uneasily, trying to placate both the seething women. "This is still your mission, Miss Farron," his tone at the title was regretful, seeing how promising Lightning had been in the Guardian Corps, "But your numbers are somewhat... smaller than what I would have recommended."

"For a good reason," Lightning argued, although most of her steam disappeared now that she was directing her words away from Lebreau. "We don't know what to expect up there."

"We just need you to meet up with Lieutenant Mosley, and determine the cause of communications break-down." Amodar dismissed. "And while it may be true that you needn't that many people up there, three-man teams are the best options at all times. You know this as well as I do."

Hope turned away from the conversation as he felt Maqui slide up beside him, bumping shoulders. The older teen looked grim, but determined, and held out what looked like a crudely build communications device.

"Keep this," He said under the tense conversation the adults were having. "I'm keeping one myself. I've sent the main comms device with Lebreau so that we'd be able to keep in communications at all times, just in case something happens and you guys need back-up or something."

Hope took the device gratefully, slipping the bulky thing into the pouch he had against his thigh. "So everyone has one?"

Maqui went suspiciously pink when he was asked that question, and shook his head. "There's the master relay device- two going up, one for each group, and then something to connect down here. But, uh, I made that one a while ago and it's not as great as the other ones, but I figured, you know, if something happened or something..." The blond shrugged. "Well, you'd be able to reach me." He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "In case you. Want to, or something. Just talk. Need to rant. I don't care."

Hope quirked a grin, feeling a swell of fondness at Maqui's thoughtfulness. It was probably something the other boy didn't even tell Lebreau about, and he probably wouldn't have any use of the device, but it was a thoughtful gesture nevertheless. "You have something that can reach to Cocoon?" He should have known, really. Maqui really was a technology whiz.

"Well, yeah, duh," The older boy passed off the question. "I built a communications array a while ago just to see if I could. Did you know those crystals holding Cocoon up conduct really well? I mean, wow, they're strong and resistant to just about any damage, but they also amplify power output by one point eight times? And that's just me building stuff near it. If there was some way to actually shape one of those, small enough, then maybe I'd be able to do more, but hey, most of our equipment can barely cut into it at all, so I doubt that would happen anytime soon."

Maqui took a moment to take a breath before giving Hope an unreadable look. "I'm not kidding about people needing those behind the scenes. There's got to be someone to man the communications and figure out what's going on."

Hope tried to hide a smile. "Lebreau refused to let you come with, huh?"

"Caught me when I tried to hide in the equipment boxes," Maqui admitted with a shrug, and Hope wasn't sure whether he was actually joking or not. "Although I didn't have a lot of time to do it. I didn't wake up all that early..."

Hope couldn't help but smile at that. Had it been any other day, neither of them would have been up right now, instead sleeping in until the last moment before school. Maybe it was okay to not be used to be waking up that early.

"Hope." Lightning's voice distracted him from a proper response, and he turned his attention over to see her frowning at them, her expression darker than when she had been arguing with Lebreau for some reason. "You should hear the plan as well."

The words were indicative enough that he should go over, and he gave Maqui an apologetic look. It had taken him a while to notice, but it really did seem like Light wasn't too fond of Maqui for some reason (not that he knew why, but he was trying to find out). The older teen just shrugged at him helplessly, as if he already knew why but didn't quite want to say anything about it yet.

"Yeah," He agreed absentmindedly, although his eyes lingered with Maqui for a moment further in apology. "Coming."

Light didn't look particularly happy when he returned, although she didn't comment on it, clasping his shoulder for a moment before letting go again and nodding to the Lieutenant to continue. Amodar frowned upon seeing Hope, though, and Hope found himself straightening his back trying to make a better impression.

The plan was simple. Find Lieutenant Mosley, and keep in half hour communications down to the surface of Pulse from each team. They would be split up (Snow, Lebreau, and Hope on one team; Lightning, Sazh, and Gadot on the other) into two groups, one to follow the distress signal that had been left on Cocoon by the earlier single man excavation, and the other group heading toward Eden and the Sanctum council chambers to find out what had been going on.

Should either team find people, or any hint as to where they would be, they were to signal to the other team and regroup. Finding the citizens of Cocoon took priority over all else.

"You have thirteen hours to search." Amodar concluded. "Should neither team find anything of use, you are still to return here on the dot. That's it, people. Thirteen hours maximum."

Then they were suited up (the most ridiculous thing, and Hope _hated_ the bulky synthetic suit that was meant to regulate everything from his movements to air. He couldn't even get suited up by himself because of the strange straps and contraptions, and needed help from both Lightning and Snow to tighten some buckles so that the overly large thing would fit him better), and sent on their way.

It was strange approaching a Cie'th stone and knowing there were at least half a dozen eyes on them. Half a dozen eyes that weren't part of the group going up, at least. Maqui and Yuj were both there, along with Amodar and several of his subordinates.

"Good luck," Amodar called out as Lightning reached out a hand to the Cie'th stone. "And Godspeed."

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* * *

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It was dark.

Shockingly dark against what had been the pre-dawn light on Gran Pulse, because Hope's vision blacked out the moment he felt his feet touch the ground again from the teleport. Without Phoenix lighting up the sky, the world was nothing but inky blackness, the only opening on the shell of the planet facing away from the distant sunrise on the planet below.

Lightning flicked on a light on her helmet, and then took a moment to flick on more lights that made her bio-suit glow dimly. The others followed suit, and Hope held his breath as his gloved fingers wandered over his helmet briefly to find the switch he had been told about before.

The sudden light that flooded his vision was a welcome relief.

"The lieutenant wanted us back before thirteen hours," Light said, her voice tinny and echoing through the helmet, "but I want us back here in five. My group will head toward Eden's crash site. Snow... find Lieutenant Mosley."

"You got it." Snow's voice was equally alien sounding.

"Check in with the other group every half hour, alternating with check ins to Amodar. That means fifteen minutes only between communications breaks. There will be a timer on your suits that will inform you of time passing every fifteen minutes. If you don't make the call, the timer will continue to go off every three minutes, and then eventually every minute." She frowned. "Let's not let it get to that point."

They all took a moment to check with their communications equipment while Lightning made the first message to be carried down the world under and conversed for several moments with Amodar.

"Checking in?" Hope asked into the tiny comms device on his wrist, feeling awkward and foolish as he heard his own voice echoing in his ear and Sazh gave him a thumbs up from several feet away.

"Loud and clear, kid," Sazh replied, sounding pleased. "Seems like it's all working fine. Let's hope this keeps up, right?"

Hope nodded, and picked up the large flashlight from the pile of supplies they had taken up with them, flicking it on and swerving the beam slowly, looking at the empty buildings and streets, darkened and eerie silent.

There were cracks on in the streets, having taken heavy damage when Cocoon had fallen from its cradle in the sky. Bruised, but not broken. He hadn't been up to Cocoon ever since... ever since the events at Eden, actually. The events felt like a blur, it had all happened so fast, but he had never gone back up after meeting up with his father down on the surface of Gran Pulse. His dad had arranged for things to be transferred down, and the two of them had resided in shelters with the rest of the ex-l'Cie for weeks while buildings were being built in a hurry by the remnant machinery that had been brought down from Cocoon.

The entire process had only taken two months before there were living areas. Fast, quick, and easy, but those two months had felt like hell in close quarters with other injured children who either glared or stared at him fearfully.

It wasn't an experience he ever wanted to repeat.

Lightning signed off and turned to the rest of the group. "My team will be searching Eden. Snow, I'm leaving the other team in your charge."

Snow's giant bio-suit gave her a placating wave. "Already in it, sis. I'll handle it, I promise."

She nodded, and then turned away without further comment, expecting the rest of her team to follow as she walked off. Sazh gave a sigh and lifted his arms in a casual shrug, then gave Gadot an understanding pat on the shoulder as the two of them wandered off after her.

Hope turned away as well. He understand the group dynamics, of course. Two with magic, one without. Gadot and Snow were both built as heavy fighters, so it was pointless to put the two of them in the same group. Not to mention, Hope was pretty sure that Light and Lebreau would never agree to be placed in the same team while they held a disagreement.

A beeping noise drew his attention to Snow, who had activated some kind of small cylindrical device and was waving it about, the noises emitted high pitched and somewhat irritation.

"So you got the location, Hero?" Lebreau asked, slinging a gun over a shoulder confidently, her posture relaxed. Hope was reminded of Fang for a moment, except her tone lacked the hint of mocking that Fang tended to favor.

"Heh." Snow gestured with the device at a direction that Hope pointed his flashlight at. "That way. This ought to be a piece of cake. We'll be done in no time."

"You just had to say that, didn't you." Hope grumbled, but followed along as the group started to move. Snow laughed at his grump, laying a heavy hand on top of Hope's helmet as if he was trying to ruffle his hair.

"Don't worry. You're with the heroes, kid. There's nothing that we can't take care of."

Heroes. He was starting to get a bit sick of the word and its over-usage by the people he knew. There was only so much he could stand of the cheesiness before he wanted to bat Snow away because the other man just wasn't _realistic_ enough. But of course Snow understood when he wasn't being realistic, and at least he toned it down around Hope whenever the younger man started to look too irritated. That was the good thing.

The bad thing was that Maqui did the same thing, and the other boy didn't seem to understand that Hope didn't appreciate the heroism, especially directed at him. It was heartwarming, yes, but after the incident that had landed the both of them in the hospital, Hope found that he hated anyone trying to be a hero for him.

Not when he could take care of himself.

In the darkness, the cities of Cocoon looked unfamiliar enough that Hope wasn't entirely sure where they had teleported. He used to know all the major cities of Cocoon, but now that everything was cracked and broken, the streets dirtier than he had ever seen.

"How can anyone live here?" He muttered under his breath, not understanding. Even in the harsh environment of Gran Pulse, things were better. Buildings were new and while they weren't anywhere as beautiful as the buildings on Cocoon had once been, it was still beautiful under the sunlight. Even with the monsters roaming the land, it was better than this dark and silent grave.

There wasn't even dirt coming from under the cracked steel and concrete. All the cities of Cocoon were so sound that it was miles of metal rather than dirt, and now after living months on the surface Pulse, it seemed... unnatural.

"People cling to what's familiar." Lebreau responded quietly, and Hope started to realize that he had spoken some of his thoughts aloud. She stepped closer, but resisted reaching out to him. That was fine. Hope was never sure how to respond when people stepped _too_ close. "It's easier than having to face something different."

A part of him understood. Maybe he would have been one of those people who protested moving to Pulse when Cocoon fell had he not taken part in its demise. He had been told all his life that Pulse was Hell, and better the world you know than the world of nightmares.

But this world of darkness... now that he thought about it, _this_ one felt like the world of nightmares.

They walked in silence for about an hour, Snow checking in with both Lightning and Amodar at certain intervals when an annoying and persistent high pitched beeping would emit from their suits. Hope would finger the slight bulk under his suit in his side pouch, wondering if Maqui was working hard making sure all the lines stayed clear. He personally couldn't imagine himself behind the scenes like the other boy could do; he'd be frustrated out of his mind trying to figure out what was going on.

He had been keeping his flashlight closer to the ground to make sure he didn't trip over an great cracks or crevices in the ground when the edge of his light fell onto something shinier than what had any right to be in the middle of a street.

He followed the object with his light, eyes widening as he took in the... large object in his path.

"What is this?" Hope asked, drawing both Snow and Lebreau's attentions. It looked almost like a jewel, really, or some kind of ornament that could have been beautiful on a necklace, except it was much too big. Bigger than Snow, even, and looked like it had somehow crash-landed in the middle of the street, the bottom part buried deep into the concrete. An asymmetrical almost teardrop shape in the ground, metal vines curled tightly around a center that couldn't be seen even with Hope shining his flashlight intently into the gaping holes between the metal.

There _was_ something inside, though, since the light didn't go through.

Lebreau reached out a hand to prevent Hope from getting any closer to it, and shone her light on the object as well.

"Maybe it's a piece that landed from Eden." She suggested. "We're not too far from its crash site."

It didn't look like anything in Eden, though, even though Hope wasn't intimately familiar with the workings of the capital. His father had worked there, but Hope never had any interest in exploring their capital in the sky any more than the regular person would. Most of those places were business buildings and government structures, after all. Not many places for children to roam. But still... he was pretty sure he might have noticed if there had been a strange statue with a design like that somewhere.

"Guys." Snow called from half a street over, and the two turned toward him. "The signal's close. We'll check this thing out after we've found and briefed Mosley, alright?"

Right, the mission. Hope felt his cheeks heat slightly to realize that he had completely forgotten their objective in the hour that they'd been walking and he'd been left to his thoughts. He hurried over, his steps light knowing that the streets could give at any moment.

Snow was frowning, still staring at the strangely shaped device in his hand.

"We should be able to see him by now, actually."

Hope pointed the flashlight in the direction that Snow faced, and then swerved it about to find anything unusual. There was nothing.

"Are you sure the transmitter is supposed to be on him?" Lebreau asked, coming up from behind them and adding her light to theirs. The area Snow had indicated was completely empty except for some fallen debris, but there was nothing that would have been able to hide a person in. "Maybe it fell off his suit."

"It couldn't have fallen off." Snow argued. "It's part of the suit."

"Did he disappear, too?" Hope wondered aloud. The thought was eerie, but somehow made sense in his head — everyone on Cocoon had disappeared, and the Lieutenant Mosley had been sent to investigate. He could have disappeared as well.

He shivered. Maybe they shouldn't stay on this empty world for long.

"Nah, he's definitely still here somewhere." Snow said. "Must be... maybe there's a street under this place. He could have gotten trapped there or something, and it'd be up to us to get him out."

That didn't help Hope's imagination at all as he sought to stop thinking about how it might be to be trapped under tonnes of steel and concrete, unable to find anyone to help and maybe with limited air. He had never met Lieutenant Mosley before. Was the man a mountain like Snow? Was he smaller, able to get into areas most wouldn't be able to?

"I can't claim to know the streets of Palumpolum," Lebreau said conversationally. "But it certainly doesn't look like there's be anything under here, Hero."

Hope's mind blanked out. This was Palumpolum? They had been walking in his home city for the past hour and he hadn't even recognized it? Just how much of the city had changed?

...Just how much about _him_ had changed?

"There are tunnels under here." He spoke up. "There's miles of tunnels under the streets. That's where most of the work went on— Carbuncle was under here." Once upon a time, anyway. After Orphan had been defeated, all of the Cocoon fal'Cie had just disappeared without the energy they received. "I know how to get there."

Because that was the thing. He _did_ know, now that he was actually looking for passages and streets rather than focusing on the rubble and the debris. He might not know where they were exactly, but he knew where they would be able to find a service tunnel. They had been all over Palumpolum once upon a time, and he had spent years just looking for those tunnels, even if he hadn't gone into every single one. Just finding them had been like discovering treasure as a child.

He looked up at the silence to see both Lebreau and Snow looking at him contemplatively.

"You can get us under the streets, kid?" Snow questioned.

Hope nodded. There were platforms in all sorts of places, and he knew what to look for. "Yeah. They're usually in the larger streets, but there are— tunnels down." He and Lightning had come up on one of them. They were easy enough to spot.

Snow grinned at him. "Guess you'll be leading this one then, kiddo! It's a good thing you were assigned to this group."

He doubted that it had been any kind of coincidence. Lightning would have known that he knew the area better than anyone else in the group. Had this been the reason that Lightning had insisted on him being in the expedition? Maybe a part of it, he admitted to himself, but he wanted to believe that there were other reasons.

He glanced on the grounds again, revealing different patches of street with his flashlight, trying to find a clue as to where they were. The streets were somewhat narrow here, and he searched with his light to where the road could lead.

"This way." He finally said, finding the familiar paths that would lead to a main road. He still wasn't sure where they were, but the architecture was the same throughout the city and he knew he would never be able to get lost here. Hope stepped over to a corner, glancing away from the intersection where a building had come tumbling down, spilling twisted metals and stone everywhere. He didn't want to think about how many people might have been in that building when it came crashing down.

The beep of the suit was taken care of as Lebreau answered the call this time, sending a message to Lightning about how they were getting close to the signal now, and that they might find Mosley and be done with their portion of the mission soon enough.

Hope wasn't so sure about that, but kept going anyway, light focused on the ground to find the smooth steel of entrances that would lead to the tunnels underground.

It was hard when the ground was mostly covered with dust and debris, nothing at all like what Palumpolum had looked like before. The city had once been clean and clear, but there weren't people to take care of the wreckage anymore. Once, they had machines maintain the city. Now, there was nothing.

"Here!" He called out when he spied a smooth plating on the ground, breaking out into a jog and then nearly crashing to his knees as he went to clear the bits and pieces of... he didn't even know what, off the area.

The bulky suit made his fingers clumsy, but the hatch was a relief to his system.

"This it?" Snow asked, coming up.

Hope only nodded.

"Alright, let's get this thing open, then." Snow said, and knelt down beside Hope. Lebreau only crouched, keeping her light steady on the mechanical entrance. "Hey, let me get in here now—"

The older man brushed fingers against the hatch, and then brushed away smaller bits of dust that had gathered in the hollows of the steel, getting a grip before just _lifting_ —

And Hope remembered at that moment that with all the power gone from Cocoon, there wasn't an easy computer interface that would have opened the doorway, and there wouldn't be a lift that could take them up and down. All of that were mere mementos of the old Cocoon, one that had been operated on unlimited power.

The hatch opened, and Hope leaned away from the cloud of dust that was dislodged into the air along with the bit of steel, bringing a hand to wave in front of his face despite the suit protecting him from the dust getting into his eyes or lungs. It was just instinct.

Snow dropped the heavy steel just a bit aways from them with a grunt of effort, and Hope looked back to see Lebreau shining her light down the hole, the darkness even more menacing beneath the streets than it had been above it.

There was the knowledge that the sunlight _would_ eventually spill onto the streets above, sometime during the day when Cocoon's shell didn't cover the beams of the sun. But down there... it was complete, pitch black.

"Well, damn." Lebreau breathed. Hope had to agree with her.

Snow studied it a moment. "You know how far that goes, Hope?"

Hope breathed out carefully, trying not to show any of his disappointment. "Far."

Too far to jump, that was for sure. It was several stories down at the very least, from what he remembered the last time he had come up the service tunnels. With the power down and computers gone, they would have to get down manually. Which would make it even harder to get _out_ from the tunnels after that.

They could exit underneath the cliffs of Palumpolum, but he didn't know how to get back _up_ if they went out that way.

"But why would he go down there?" Hope wondered aloud, trying to work it out. If Lieutenant Mosley really had been dispatched onto Cocoon to find out what was going on, then he should have been where Lightning's group had been headed— to Eden's crash site, where people had been trying to rebuild a living there.

Going down into the tunnels of Palumpolum seemed counter-productive.

"You said it yourself, Hope." Lebreau said. "Carbuncle was down there, wasn't he? That's a reason right there to investigate. Not just a powerful fal'Cie, but one that provided food for all of Cocoon. If he could find something, maybe he could provide more food for the people down in Pulse, too."

Hope didn't think so. _All_ of the fal'Cie had disappeared, and Carbuncle hadn't been the most powerful out there.

"Food is important." Lebreau continued. "Probably more so up here on Cocoon now."

"You think it might have something to do with everyone disappearing?" He asked.

She shrugged. "Who's to say? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I'm just saying there are plenty of reasons why Mosley would go down here to investigate." She looked dubious of her own words, though. "Wish his comms was working. Then we'd be able to confirm."

"Signal's definitely coming from down there." Snow confirmed for them. "So that's where we need to go."

"How would we get back _up_?" Hope asked, because that was the most important question in his mind. It wasn't as he was scared to go down, but if they were going to go, it was best to go with a plan first.

It was Lebreau who moved first from their perches. "We tell the others. Tell them where we're headed first, and then find supplies that will help us get in and out of this place. Palumpolum has stores, right? I'm sure we can find a few things around here to scavenge—" Hope didn't think so, especially since this place so abandoned. He figured all the people who had stayed on Cocoon would have gone through the stores already long ago by now. "—For anything that can help us. Ropes, equipment, anything you think would work."

Snow didn't look very happy about that plan. "It would take too long to go through the shops—"

"We split up." Hope spoke up. "There's three districts of shops. We can each hit one and keep in contact , and then we'll be able to go through them three times as fast." As much as he didn't think they'd be able to find anything of use in those stores, he couldn't just discount the possibility in case there really was something that had been missed and could help them. They had brought supplies, yes, but nothing for an in-depth investigation under the city. This was a short mission, after all, with what was supposed to be easy goals to achieve.

"No." Snow dismissed the idea. "We stay together. There's no telling what's out there—"

"There's nothing out there!" Hope exclaimed, irritated. He _knew_ why Snow had thrown his idea out the window like that. Had it been Lightning on the team instead, _anyone else_, Snow would have approved of the idea. He just knew it. "No people who might beat us around, no crazy machines, nothing. This entire world's dead, Snow, and the shops aren't even far away!"

He was probably the safest out of all of them, seeing as he this had once been home. He knew the streets, even with all the crap around them. He might not know where things had fallen, but he knew how to get back. He knew where to duck to if something actually did happen, which he seriously doubted would.

The reason Snow had said no was because _Hope_ had suggested it, because he didn't think it was right to let _Hope_ wander off alone. No, had it been anyone else, the idea would have been approved with only a few words regarding how they should all keep in contact with each other.

"We're in three man teams for a reason, Hope," Lebreau spoke up, tuning in on the growing tension. Her tone was placating, calm. "It's just not a good idea to separate."

"Because of what? If we get lost? We could just leave a light here. Considering how dark it is around, we'll be able to see that for miles around. If there were anything around, someone would have said something. One of the machines would have told us. There's nothing dangerous here. And we need to save on time, right? There's no way we could search the city _and_ underground in less than thirteen hours, not to mention how it would take longer than normal because of the darkness and all the things in our way.

"You said we should go through the shops. It's a better idea than just staying here, or throwing ourselves head-first into danger completely unprepared."

She looked taken aback, somewhat chastised even as she turned to look toward Snow to see if the man would be convinced. Hope felt a flare of satisfaction. His words made _sense_, and now it was really up to convincing Snow now because Lebreau had been the one to come up with the idea of searching, so she would be more reasonable about his suggestion.

Snow hesitated.

"We'll all probably be a hundred meters away from each other, max," Hope continued. "I'm sure if I shouted, you'd be able to hear me. So you can panic when I tell you that I found the rope we need from whatever shop I'm in, okay."

It was another subtle dig on the fact that there was no one there, and therefore no danger.

"None of us should be out alone." Lebreau protested one last time. Hope knew what she meant: she didn't want _him_ out there alone.

"We're not even going to be alone considering how close we'll all be, anyway."

"Alright, alright," Snow grumbled. "I can tell when you're going to fight me on this all the way, kid."

It was telling of how Serah had managed to tame the other man that Snow just rubbed at the back of his helmet in an exasperated manner rather than argue.

"Keep an open comm," he said. "At all times. I want to be able to ask you a question and you answer back in moments, alright? This isn't a situation where we need to keep radio silence. So if ask you to tell me something that I should know, you'll say—?"

He waited, and Hope rolled his eyes, ignoring Lebreau's quiet chuckle.

"You're an idiot." He intoned flatly, because he knew that Snow would know he didn't mean it... well, not _too_ much, at least. "That's something you should know."

Hope had to duck as the heavy weight of Snow's hand landed on his head.

"Yup, you're definitely spending too much time with sis." Snow chuckled as well, and the moved to stand up. "Alright. We'll scout out the shops and see what we can find. We came from that direction, so..."

"Actually, we probably passed shops on the way here." Hope shrugged. Now that he thought about it, it would explain the heavier debris. More items flung around.

"Fine. Hope, I want to go back the direction we came and see if there's anything there we missed. Don't go off too far. Lebreau, that side's all yours," He gestured in the dark with his hand. "And I'll take the opposite way. Remember, _open comms._"

"You got it, boss." Lebreau spoke up, pulling a thin stick from the pack she had strapped to the waist of her suit. She gave it a shake and then smacked one end hard against the ground, the flare lighting up suddenly and brightly, making Hope's eyes water. It was brighter than their flashlights, although it hissed and flickered in protest. "This ought to last about two hours. That'll give us time to look around, right? And we'll be able to find our way back here."

"Sounds like a plan." Snow nodded.

Hope stood up gingerly from where he had knelt, brushing off the knees of his suit. Lebreau handed another one of the flares to him, and one to Snow as well.

"If anything happens, anything at all," she said. "Light these up, and I'll come find you. Or the other way around. Better yet, shout, and then light these up so I know you didn't drop them by accident."

"Worrywart," Snow teased, and Hope felt a pang to realize that in this team, he was the odd man out. Snow and Lebreau worked with each other for years and know all about each other's mannerisms and fighting styles, and had a far smoother camaraderie than he had ever managed with either of them.

He was the one who had never fought with Lebreau before, and didn't know how she would react in situations (although he guessed _well_ seeing as she had been one of the ones who fought during the Purge).

Outside of Snow and Maqui, Hope had never spent much time alone with any of the other NORA members.

It made him feel awkward to think about it.

"Hey," Lebreau's soft voice startled him out of his thoughts. "Chin up, alright. Can't have you dazing out and not answering any of the boss's questions, yes? Then we'd both worry and come after you, and I know you don't want that."

She patted him on the shoulder and he resisted the slight urge to flinch away, still unused to touch from outside the small group of people he had gotten close to. He'd have to get used to it, he knew, because Team NORA was important to Snow, and important to Maqui as well. That made them important to him, even if he wasn't used to their presence yet.

"Meet back here in an hour." Snow said, just as the three of them started moving away from each other. "And remember, keep on the comm!"

.

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**Day 2, part 1.**

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* * *

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**AN:** I-is anyone still even here? Oh, goodness, this took _forever_, didn't it? I am so, so sorry for that. Dropped out of the fandom for a little while, but if there's anyone who still even remembers this story, welp! I'm updating it (and stopped here because LJ decided to be an ass and won't accept longer chapters than this) and there's definitely going to be more. Here's hoping I did Hope's POV justice because... he's such a complicated character to me. What are his thoughts? How does he deal? More from Maqui next up, and this one's definitely not going to take as long as this chapter. It'll be a little while still, though, as I'm writing a Big Bang story for the Merlin fandom as well. ^^;; BUT ALSO, I'm in the middle of another Kinematics-verse story. You know the type- the one where I actually _finish_ it and you guys get the entire thing just about at once! ^^;; Not to mention I'm looking into MegaFlare this year, so hopefully _loads_ more on this verse coming up!

This is so completely unbeta'd and I'm sorry, but I revised a bunch of my ideas to try and fit in bits from XIII-2 here as well, sooo... that might be interesting. ^^;;; We'll see.


	3. Day 2, part 2

He had been right in his original assessment: there was _nothing _there in the shops. Ten minutes of digging through rubble with thick and clumsy gloved fingers just made Hope feel more frustrated as he struggled not to drop his flashlight and simultaneously study underneath what felt like a ten tonne wall that had crashed into a display case.

Half of the shops he hadn't even entered, having dismissed them entirely when he read the signs up close and realized they were just clothing shops. Unless they decided to tie dresses together and shimmy down using that as a rope, which was far too much trouble, he doubted that they would need anything from those shops.

Still, what he had been wrong about was that not as many people seemed to have looted through them as he had thought. Most of them had probably gone through the factories that held far more items than the little shops. Heck, the military had probably raided though those factories to take things down for the people on Gran Pulse in exchange for food coming up to Cocoon.

Something crashed heavily next to him as he tried to move, and Hope yelped before scrambling backwards in an attempt to avoid the rain of debris. He hadn't seen anything get dislodged, but at the rate he could actually _see_ anything... darkness, Hope thought bitterly, was not something he was fond of a single bit.

"What was that?" Snow demanded from the comm line in his helmet, voice shocking clear and loud.

Hope took a moment to slow his breathing before responding, "Nothing. Something fell, that's all."

He hated the fact that the others could hear him. He'd have to make sure not make shout out like that next time.

"You sure about that?" Lebreau put in, and Hope winced.

"Yeah. I just hate these suits. Makes it harder to move." It wasn't a lie— the bulky things were irritating and he felt like he had to scratch his nose half an hour ago and couldn't. The itch was still there, subdued only by Hope's will of mind as he concentrated on other things. "I don't get why we have to wear them. Didn't Lieutenant Mosley do an atmospheric test and found nothing off?"

"Just because he didn't find anything doesn't mean that there can't be something there anyway." Lebreau said. "Our tests aren't a hundred percent, after all, and there might have been something that we missed."

"Doubt our suits would be able to protect us if there really was something that was eluding the scanners." Hope grumbled.

"It's a good precaution, anyway." Lebreau said.

"Alright, chatterboxes," Snow cut in. "I get that you're fine. Let's get back to searching now, alright? Did anyone find anything yet, because I think I'm currently stuck in a shop that sells... tins. Man, who even buys things like this?"

"People with far too much money on their hands." Lebreau snickered, and Hope had to clam his mouth shut to not make a sound because he knew the shop that Snow was talking about, and his mom used to love browsing that shop. It had been something of a pottery shop, although he was certain that all the glass and ceramics had been smashed by the planet fall. The only things left there were probably the delicate steel and bulky metal vases that had been on the back shelves, sitting proudly for an eccentric buyer to come along and claim them.

He was starting to wonder if it wasn't a better idea to just... send word down to Lieutenant Amodar first about them lacking the supplies to complete the mission, and having it rescheduled to another day. The next day, even, would be fine.

But he didn't want to be the one to suggest it. He didn't want to be the one who had been the reason Lightning's mission had been a failure, at least on his half of it. It was something simple, something less than dangerous, and he had been included because she thought he could _contribute_ something, and damned if Hope wasn't going to make this mission a success for her.

Find Mosley. Fine. That should be easy enough, even with all the obstacles in the way.

"Hey, I found something," Lebreau's voice broke through again. "Must have been someone's back room or something. Got some equipment here, just had to break through the lock."

(Break through the lock. A year ago, Hope would never have been able to imagine himself _looting_, would never associate with anyone who could break locks, and wouldn't have been left in a dark place alone, especially not on his own insistence. It was almost funny how much had changed.)

"What is it?" Snow asked, and there was a soft grunt from Lebreau that made them all hold their breaths to hear her again.

"Bits and ends. Maqui would love this. He'd probably know what to do with all this junk. Looks like things we can use, but I wouldn't have the first clue how to put it together."

The old communicator suddenly felt heavy against his thigh.

"It'd be useful, though?" Hope asked.

"Sure looks like it." Lebreau confirmed. "Think I should take it all with me anyway?"

"Sounds like a good idea." Snow said. "At least, get it back to our checkpoint. If we can't use it, we leave it, no harm done."

Hope shoved at another downed shelf, clearing the area he was in slightly as he tried to peer around to see if there was anything that might be useful on his end. He wondered vaguely if he'd be able to help out with the things that Lebreau was likely to take, seeing as he had spent a good amount of time with Maqui lately, sometimes just helping him around in the garage, but then thought better of it. Snow and Lebreau had spent much more time with Maqui seeing as they were Team NORA, and if they couldn't figure out what to do, then what chance did he have?

Just as he thought, there was nothing useful hiding underneath those shelves, either.

"This place is way too quiet." He murmured softly under his breath, stepping out of that shop and almost breathing a sigh of relief to see the nearly lightened streets. The sun was making its way up in Gran Pulse, and it was be late morning by now, nearing noon. That meant that it was slightly brighter in Cocoon as well, the echo of sunlight filtering through the broken and crystallized shell to land softly in the streets. Almost enough that he didn't need his flashlights anymore, even if it was still dark and gloomy inside the shops.

"Look sharp, kid. Quiet doesn't mean safe."

"I know that, Snow." There was another shop on the opposite end of the street, but the windows and doors were blocked by pieces of buildings, enough that Hope knew he wouldn't be able to get in, not without damaging his suit at the very least. Guess that shop was off the list. That meant he was nearly done with his search, and so far the only somewhat useful thing the three of them had managed to find was the things that Lebreau had just reported in about.

A glint caught his eye, and Hope turned to see that strange steel teardrop in the streets again, this time looking softer in the late morning glow. Of all the things, that had been the object he hadn't been able to place, having been so embedded in the street like that. Hope would have thought it to be some kind of sculpture, but it didn't look like something that had fallen out of the shops, or anything that people would have worked on. It looked like it had come flying down from the sky at alarming speed to break through the ground like that.

Unbidden, he walked toward it, one hand raised and then pressed against the smooth steel sides. What a strange statue. There was just something about it that felt different, felt... He eyed it closely, gloved hand running down the winding steel.

That was it. It looked _new_. Completely new while everything around them looked older, worn and tired. The shops had been covered in dust and debris, and even the streets were crumbling from the fall and the past several months. But this... this thing was shining. It was gleaming and clean, smooth and untouched. This thing looked _brand new_.

"Guys." He spoke up, because the revelation brought a unease that prompted him to drop his hand and back up a step. "Remember... remember that thing in the streets that we walked past?"

"What thing?" Lebreau asked, and Snow made a sound of inquiry as well.

"That..." How could be describe it? "Jewel, teardrop shaped thing. In the middle of the street."

"You found something inside of that?" Snow asked, sounding incredulous.

"No. No." Hope denied quickly. He backed up another step, and looked up at the entirety of it. It was twice as tall as him, maybe; maybe more. And the blackness inside hadn't dissipated in the slightest, even in the light. "It's just odd."

"Yeah, we go that the first time," said Snow.

"No, I mean it doesn't look like it came from before the crash. This thing looks new. Really new. Like it's only been out on display for a few days at best."

He waited for a second before seeing what looked like a flicker of light within the darkness of the strange... orb? Statue?

"Hope." Lebreau's voice was clear as glass. "Stay where you are and don't go near that thing. We're heading your way now."

There was a moment, mere heartbeats, before Snow spoke up as well.

"Hope?"

The sudden silence on the line was deafening.

.

* * *

.

"Anything?" Lightning asked from her perch at the top of what had previously been Sanctum council buildings, trusting Sazh to report back in truthfully. She had sent Gadot to stay on the lookout in case of intruders, or even in case he managed to see someone, anyone, left on the planet.

There had luckily been steps made from broken bookcases and tables that allowed Sazh to climb down and rummage through the broken computer systems and the papers that had quickly been adopted again when the power systems went out. She hadn't wanted to read the shaky handwriting, knowing that Sazh was much better at deciphering the words than she was. It had been years since anyone other than children on Cocoon had to write anything down, and relearning that muscle memory had been hard on some people. Everyone knew how to _write_, but no one was used to it anymore.

"Yeah." Sazh called up. "A bunch of terrible handwriting, that's what!"

She snorted in amusement. "Not what I meant."

"Hold your horses," Sazh said, his voice echoing in the comm system of her helmet. "I've got a few things, alright. Looks like they had this project going on to try and restore Cocoon to better days. Sounds fishy, but there aren't any mentions of fal'Cie or the sort, so it might be just some delusional person's diary. Heck if I know."

"Sazh. We need official reports." Lightning reminded him.

"Soldier, you try telling official from unofficial when it's all written on paper." Sazh grumbled. "S'not like there are different levels of encryption to tell what's actually Sanctum stuff, is there? It's all just ink on paper, no way of telling what's what. No filing system, either! How am I supposed to find what's relevant when it's folders and folders out here? They should at least have a decent filing system!"

Lightning shifted as her suit beeped softly at her, and she silenced that with a press of her hand against the comms. It was time for a call to Amodar, which she bypassed by typing out a message to him about how it was all still going well. It was more professional than letting her former commanding officer hear Sazh's cursing and complaining.

It was strangely soothing to hear Sazh's running commentary about how the system had degenerated.

"Hey, soldier girl!" Sazh called up, unnecessarily loud through the comm. She sighed, but refrained from sniping about whether he knew that he didn't have to shout through the distance because she already knew that he probably understood the technology better than she did.

"What?" She asked, voice perfectly level.

Sazh was waving sheets of paper at her from inside the chambers

"Come take a look at this." He called over, and Lightning resisted a sigh. She got up, and jumped down to the bottom of the room, bypassing the steps that had been made out of broken furniture. She didn't need those to cushion her fall.

"What is it?"

"Schematics." He said, voice grave. "This weren't no diary, all right. They were building something, and it looked like something big. Don't know how any of that works yet, looks like pure nonsense, but hell. Looks like complicated nonsense, and it might be a clue."

She glared down at the drawings that Sazh handed over, tracing the lines and calculations written by a shaky hand, exclamations and crossed out lines all over the corners. There were sketched out drawings and mathematical equations piled atop each other, with lines of programming jargon that went above her head.

"We'll take this down to Lieutenant Amodar." She said. "See if anyone can analyze what this is meant to be."

"Sure thing." Sazh responded easily. "Just..." He pointed to a large box, spilling with papers. "I got that from there. Seems rather silly if we take the top sheets but not the rest of it."

Lightning handed the papers back to Sazh without missing a beat. "Gadot will carry it."

She was there to oversee the operation, not to be weighed down by carrying crates of blueprints that may or may not be useful. Besides, if Team NORA was going to infiltrate her mission, then they could make themselves useful.

"You know, you don't need to be so hard on that lot." Sazh said conversationally as he organized the pile of papers into a semblance of order, getting it to somehow all stay in the box. "I get where they're coming from, you know. Hell, if I hadn't spent all that time with you and Hope, I wouldn't be so sure about you letting him come, either. Both you and I know he can take care of himself. But _they_don't. And that makes their worry a legitimate thing."

"I don't need them questioning me." Lightning said, tone firm but soft. Had it been anyone else, she wouldn't have offered such information, but Sazh had been with her from the very start of their journey during the Purge, and he had followed even when the odds seemed impossible. For that, she was willing to impart more of her thoughts to him.

"Well, you need someone questioning you and keeping you on your toes, even if it ain't them. What would happen if you got everything you wanted? No one speaks up, and things might go hazy. And we all know the hero and the kid aren't going to speak up."

"So you're doing it for them?"

"Just taking up the slack." Sazh sounded nonchalant about it. "Seems you don't like people you don't know questioning your motives."

She shifted her weight, unwilling to reveal how uncomfortable she was with this conversation. "And what's that?"

Sazh stopped his work and looked up, the lights in his helmet giving his face a harder look. "That'd be up to you. But Lightning... you have to decide. Hope's going to follow your lead. Are you training him to be a soldier or aren't you?"

She looked away, at the brightening sky beyond the collapsed ceilings of the building. At times, she wondered that herself. She didn't want the young boy anywhere close to battle, but didn't want him to go soft, either. He could make the right decisions— he had proven it to her before. She wanted him to be prepared, just in case he needed to make those decisions.

It had been the same with Serah, once upon a time. When she had first joined the Guardian Corps, Lightning had made sure that Serah would never be part of that conflict, would never need to follow her path. She had been strict with her sister, making sure Serah studied hard and carried on, but also taking the time to teach the younger girl how to fight, how to defend herself.

Serah had turned out... better than Lightning could ever have hoped for. But she felt she couldn't take the credit for that. It had been all Serah's kindness and patience that allowed her to endure Lightning's indecision about her sister's future.

She didn't have a place in deciding Hope's future. Bartholomew would be the one to call the shots, but Hope had put his foot down at being coddled, and Lightning could _understand_ that. In some ways, she couldn't help herself in looking after Hope. He was too strong-willed, too stubborn to back down from anything, and far too resistant to anyone who wanted to keep him safe. Not at all like Serah, who revelled in the moments when Lightning's hardness fell away and they were sisters rather than a guardian and charge. Serah was soft and sweet, preferring to stay away from battle and trusting in others to make things okay again. Hope couldn't leave it up to other people anymore, not when he had seen what could happen if he wasn't there.

...Hope was far too much like her.

"I want him out of the conflict." She admitted. It was always what she had told herself, even when she couldn't bring herself to leave him behind. She remembered the look on his face when he thought she was going to leave him, and she just couldn't do it. It was almost as bad as watching Serah walk away on her twenty-first birthday.

"Then," Sazh said gently, careful of her thoughts. "You gotta let him down. He's just going to keep following you, and you're just going to keep training him to make sure he's safe, and then eventually he's going to be a soldier and neither of you will understand how that happened."

"You're asking me to leave him behind? Tell him he's not good enough to come along?" Her tone was sharp, accusing. She couldn't imagine herself doing that, not when Hope _was_good enough and she knew how much it meant to him to be included.

"Tell me, would you bring Serah here?" At her silence, Sazh just nodded. "Thought so. You want to see Serah safe. Now the question is, why are you letting Hope wander into danger? And don't say you aren't 'letting' him." Sazh held up a hand to stem her scathing retort. "Because this is your mission, just like you said. You could have kept him down on Pulse, safe with those NORA boys."

She could have. But she needed his back-up, just in case. They were l'Cie... no. They _used_to be l'Cie, and even if the brand faded away from their flesh, it felt tattooed onto her soul. She wasn't fool enough to think she could leave that phase of her life behind her. It had changed her, had changed all of them, irrevocably.

She didn't understand it herself. So she did what she did best; shrug off the conversation and concentrate on matters at hand.

"It doesn't matter. He's here now." And really, that's what she would deal with, rather than asking herself what ifs and second guessing her own decisions.

Sazh gave her a long look and finally agreed, "Suppose not."

"Hey!" The both of them looked up, Lightning as calmly as possible, toward the silhouette of Gadot atop the building, a gun slung over one shoulder confidently. Lightning frowned at the sight— if there really were people hiding away from them here, she didn't want to give them the impression that the group of them were here for trouble.

Weapons, she thought, should be holstered until they were necessary.

"Call from Lebreau!" He shouted down, pointing to the area on his arm with the comms. "What the heck are the both of you doing down there? Thought only one person should be in that room since it's shielded from radio-wave interference?"

"We found something!" Sazh called, and Lightning felt a twinge of annoyance. Of course the both of them would shout when they didn't need to. "Hang on, Lebreau called? Isn't that a bit early?"

Gadot's faint but somber expression was all that was needed for Lightning to climb her way out of the building quickly, her jumps careful and precise.

The sounds over her comm was immediately clearer as she exited, and she responded to the call. "What."

There was silence on the other end for a moment before Snow spoke up. "Lightning. We found something here that might have to do with how everyone's gone."

She frowned. Snow's tone was more serious than what she expected, and there was a distinctive lack of the confident swagger in his voice that she had gotten used to. It had been a long time since he called her anything other than 'sis' as if it were his personal mission to provoke her into strangling him. But what could he have possibly found in his search for Lieutenant Mosley? It should have been an easy in and out mission, with them waiting for her team at the Cie'th stone long before they were done.

But Gadot's expression was heavy, and Sazh was climbing out of the council chambers behind her, and Lightning knew that something serious had happened.

"Send a flare. We'll be there." But no, it wasn't just that. There was something about the way Snow had spoke... "What is it?"

"Looks like a sort of generator." Snow replied. "Round. And it's definitely emitting a hell lot of energy. We passed it earlier, and it was completely dark. Now... Lightning, this thing is lighting up the whole street."

_That_ sounded like exactly what their entire team had been sent up to look for. She nodded absentmindedly, already on her way down from the building and confident that both Gadot and Sazh would be following her. In the distance, she could see the red light of a flare going up in the sky. It was far, looked about three hours' walk, but she was certain that she could cover the distance in well under a quarter of that time without any hardships. So long as Snow kept out of trouble.

"Lightning." And this time, Snow's voice was softer, barely audible.

She merely grunted an acknowledgement. She was already on her way, responding would be a waste of breath.

She heard Snow take a breath.

"Hope's gone."

.

* * *

.

He didn't know what happened.

One moment, there had been a flickering light within the darkness of that strange object embedded in the ground.

The next moment, it was bright. And it wasn't even the type of bright that blinded him because it had come directly at him from the front, either. It was an overwhelming light, sudden and intense against his eyes where seconds ago it had been nearly pitch black. It was coming from everywhere, almost. Above him most of all, like intense sunlight suddenly streaming down.

"Hey." The voice was distant. "Are you okay?"

Lebreau? He thought blearily, blinking away tears as his eyes adjusted slowly to the brightness. Everything was still a sea of white.

A touch on his shoulder made him flinch away, but the grip was firm and relentless.

"Hey, you're okay." The voice was soothing, and louder now. "I've got you. Bit of a woozy, wasn't it?"

He could see his hands in front of him now, covered by the pale blue of the bio-suit. The street, unblemished and clean. It was bright still, looking about mid-day. He looked up to see a lady smiling at him, her face unfamiliar.

"Hey, why are you dressed like that?" And just like that, she reached for the clasps of his helmet, pressing lightly against buttons and safety mechanisms, and there was a hiss of released air as she pulled it off deftly. "Now, that's better, isn't it? No wonder you were woozy! Could you even breathe in that thing?"

He blinked up, then panicked and stepped back, reaching up to where his helmet was supposed to be. He wasn't supposed to take that off! Just because there were no anomalies found in the environmental systems for Cocoon didn't mean that there were things that the scanners wouldn't be able to detect, at least according to Lebreau!

But the world around him was bright. Clean. He blinked rapidly, wondering if he had suddenly gone insane as he took in the sights around him. Palumpolum as it had once been, whole and bright and beautiful, sunlight glistening as the streets bustled with people and noise, hovercars zooming down the street and the air crisp as it once was, made all the more apparent by the foil of the bio-suit recycled oxygen.

"Wha—?" He couldn't seem to find his voice. Everything was too bright and vivid, fantastical compared to the wasteland he had spent the last several hours traversing through, heavy with the knowledge that it had once been his home.

But _this _place was what looked like his home. This was Palumpolum as he remembered it, the streets now familiar where just minutes ago they had been unfamiliar.

The lady stood just a few feet beside him, lips quirked in a smile. "You're a funny kid. What are you doing in one of those suits, anyway? Those aren't toys, you know."

He just stared at her blankly.

She gave him a peculiar look and tossed the helmet at him, making Hope step back awkwardly to catch it. "Suit yourself, kid. Don't go crying when whoever you took that suit off of gets pissy with you. Honestly. Must be some new fashion I didn't know about, walking about in bio-suits."

It took him another few moments to digest her words as the woman walked away, but Hope fought through the haze of his shock. "Wait! You know someone else wearing this?"

Because... because Lieutenant Mosley came through in a suit, right? And he had his beacon on him, the one that was tied to the suit but Snow had been convinced was underneath the city.

The woman turned back and regarded him. "Yeah. Found him wandering the streets last night. Panicked a few people who thought there might be some kind of epidemic. Don't know where he went, though. Think he was Guardian Corps or something. You looking for him, kid?"

Hope thought fast. "Yeah. I— I got this suit off him, but I'm supposed to give it back today before I head home."

"Funny thing, walking around in it."

"Thought it'd make me more obvious?" Hope squeaked, and winced at his own voice. "Thanks for the update, though."

She wandered away, leaving Hope to muse about what just happened to himself.

Where _was _he? Had he suddenly been teleported? That would make sense in a way, but what didn't make sense was how this place looked just like Palumpolum.

Realizing he was getting more than a few stares in his bio-suit, Hope managed to find a corner to shimmy out of the bulky thing, figuring that if the helmet was off, then it wasn't as if taking off the suit would do any more damage. It was a good thing he was wearing his normal clothing underneath, up to his gloves and capelet and neckerchief.

He stayed in the shadows with the suit at hand, pressing against the comms system and trying to find a signal. "Snow? Lebraeu? ...Lightning?"

Several minutes of silence from the comm later, Hope had given up in frustration. Smoothing down his hair a moment, Hope looked around wondering if he would have to carry the suit (still a bulky thing, even compressed) or whether he could find somewhere to hide it.

Would it even be a good idea to leave it anywhere, though? What if the trouble with communications was just a momentary glitch that would resolve itself with time? It didn't seem likely, but if there was even the slightest chance... He winced, leaning against the outer wall of a shop. He had gotten _separated _from the others. Not something that he thought would ever happen, to be honest. He hadn't thought he'd be able to find anything of real use in the shops, much less find himself somewhere... different.

Where _was _this place?

He had to find Lieutenant Mosley.

Hope bundled up the suit as tightly as possible, wrapping the flimsier parts around the helmet until it looked like a strange shapeless thing of pale blue. At least then he could pull off just running an errand for someone, carrying things around. He could... he'd be able to ask around, actually, if he had the suit with him.

The best clue he had at the moment was where the signal had been coming from— underneath the city in the service tunnels housing Carbuncle. With the place looking it did before the Purge, he would have no problem finding his way into one of those tunnels.

Stepping out of the shadows and following a crowd to remain undetected, Hope kept his head down while trying to surreptitiously trying to gather more clues about this place. It couldn't be Palumpolum, since he had just been in Palumpolum not minutes ago. Unless he had been knocked out? Transported? The signs were all the same as he remembered, and even the streets boasted the same names. Shops had billboards that drew people in with weekend sales and promotional discounts.

He made his way through the main streets, studying the electronic screens for a hint that this may be somewhere else... or even of the date, which seemed strangely absent. It was a far-fetched idea, but had he somehow landed in the past? The future?

It couldn't be it, since Snow still had the signal from Mosley's suit.

At least, he really really hoped he hadn't somehow gotten stuck in the past.

"Stop."

Hope froze as he turned the corner toward one of the underground entrances and found a pair of Guardian Corps soldiers at the doorway. "Uhh..."

"Scram, kid. You're not supposed to be here."

"I'm supposed to deliver this suit to Lieutenant Mosley." He rushed, the idea coming to him as his words were forming. "His suit got torn yesterday."

The soldiers looked at each other, and Hope fought not to squirm or fidget in his lie. Well, it wasn't quite a lie— he really was looking for Mosley, after all.

"Bit young to be errand boy, aren't you?" One of the soldiers said, sounding incredulous.

Hope shrugged. "I'm interning. Weekend thing for school service points. Guardian Corps seemed more interesting than getting coffee for the scientists at Sunleth."

The soldier chuckled at him, and then moved a pace back. "Too right it is. Get that suit to the lieutenant, then. I heard he didn't sound quite right in his head yesterday."

The other soldier looked more reluctant to let just some kid who claimed to be running errands through, but then how else would he have that bio-suit, right? He finally shifted reluctantly, gesturing with an armored hand, "Be quick about it. No loitering around."

"Sure," Hope agreed quickly, and squeezed past the soldiers onto the platform, calling up the holographic panel for the computer to take him down. He allowed himself a sigh of relief only as the platform started going down and closed above his head, blocking out the soldiers.

He didn't remember those entrances being guarded before. Kids were usually scurrying all around the area until one of the scientists would shoo them away. What was going on?

_No,_ Hope thought, _this isn't Palumpolum._

Kids played around the tunnels before the Purge. Now, Cocoon was a dead world and wherever this was, it wasn't the city Hope had grown up in.

Luckily, the lift opened up again to reveal mostly empty paths, with only a few scientists who either hurried along or only gave him a curious glance before going back to whatever they were doing. Hope kept his head down, trying not to remember all the fights that he had gone through the last time he had been down there, all the maintenance creatures that he and Light had to battle through in order to get into the city.

"Excuse me," He demurred to one of the scientists, careful to keep his head ducked in a sheepish manner and his eyes wide as he looked up through his bangs. If there was one advantage to his age and size, it was that people usually saw him as harmless at first glance. It never hurt to help reinforce the image if he needed to. "I'm looking for Lieutenant Mosley? I— I got lost."

The man visibly softened from the scowl he had when he had turned away from his work, and nodded toward Hope. "Mosley, hmm? I can look for him if you want. Is he on shift down here today?"

Hope hesitated. _Was _he? He wasn't entirely sure of what he was doing, but only an hour ago Snow had said Mosley's bio-suit readings were coming from under the city, and at the very least, Hope was going to trust that.

"I think he might have been an hour ago?" Playing up the lost child was almost sickening, but it was the easiest way to slip around. "At least, I was told he was down here. I'm supposed to deliver something to him."

"Is that a bio-suit?"

"Yeah. I think something happened to his yesterday...?" From what he had been able to gather, anyway. Hope wasn't sure what had gone on, but he figured that Mosley probably got here the same way he did (and how was that?) last night and freaked out before getting recognized and accepted into this place. He still didn't know why the security measures were there.

"I heard about that." The scientist said absentmindedly, having turned back to his computer to bring up another screen, this one to search for people down in the sub-levels of Palumpolum. "He went a bit nuts, talked about being lost and not knowing where this was. Probably needed a vacation, that guy." He nodded to himself, and then looked over his shoulder at Hope. "Keep going left. Take the lift down to sub-base. Heard he's working with Carbuncle today."

"Thanks." Left, then down. It seemed simple enough, and Hope waited until the scientist's attention was completely diverted from him before he went on his way, surprised at how _easy _it was to sneak down there.

He was pretty much ignored the rest of the way, but he kept his head down anyway and rushed long, trying to look as if he knew what he was doing and why he was there. The glow of Carbuncle was bright on the pathways, and he glared inadvertently, knowing that it wasn't _right_. Carbuncle and all the other fal'Cie on Cocoon had been gone for months now.

This place was... He stepped down heavier just to make sure, and yes, the walkways were solid. It was real, as real as he could figure it to be.

There was a man at the end of the platform, staring over the railing and ignoring the computer screens entirely, still as he watched the rotating glow of Carbuncle hard at work, the light spinning as it continued to generate food for the population of Cocoon.

"Lieutenant Mosley?" Hope called out. The area was empty of all other people, and there was a telling blue bio-suit hanging over the railing near the brown-haired man.

The man tensed, not looking back.

"I don't need any help," the man gritted out. "So you can take your coffee and leave."

Hope's eyes widened. Well, it certainly sounded like he was acknowledging who he was... he cleared his throat. "I'm not here with coffee. Lieutenant Mosley? I was sent up with the second group to Cocoon after your communications failure with Lieutenant Amodar. I'm Hope Estheim—"

"The politician's kid?" Mosley turned, eyes narrowed but seemingly more willing to talk. "Wait. Second group? You're from Gran Pulse?"

If it really were Cocoon, Hope knew, the Cocoon as it had been mere months ago, mentioning that he was from Pulse was not only a death sentence, but a killing order for everyone in the city.

"Yeah." He admitted, feeling reluctant to do so.

Mosley's face ran a gauntlet of emotions, from skeptical and incredulous to outright relief and then the full circle back again. "They sent a kid up after me?"

Hope had to bite back a scowl. That was _not_ the point (not to mention, he had just about _had it_ with the 'kid' title). "They sent a team. I happened to be part of that team. I happen to be the part of the team that _found you_."

So he might have felt a bit snappy. He thought he was due at least that, seeing as he had been separated from everyone else but still managed to fulfill mission parameters.

Mosley darted forward, covering the distance between them in two steps before Hope could even think _wow, he's almost as tall as Snow—_and grasped his shoulders tightly.

"Do you have a way back?" Mosley demanded, and Hope flinched back involuntarily. "Did you find one?"

"What—? No! I don't even know how I got here, but I did!"

Mosley let go of him, and Hope backed up two steps just in case, hunching his shoulders tensely as the man moved.

"Then they shouldn't have sent a kid!" Mosley cursed, going back to where he had stood before at the railing, glaring out at the void between himself and Carbuncle. "It should have been — soldiers and scientists! I need to either solve this thing before nightfall, or force my way out."

Hope shifted the suit to one arm, rubbing at his sore shoulder. "Solve _what_ thing? You're not making any sense."

"This world." Mosley's tone was bitter. "Is a virtual construct. Created by the remains of the Sanctum to provide a better world for those who decided to remain on Cocoon. To give them better lives, of past happiness. Too many people who stayed were grieving and dying because they were unable to go on, and there was nothing that could have revived Cocoon. So they decided to go back. By using the physical bodies as energy, they recreated Cocoon. It was only supposed to be a test run — twenty-four hours to see how stable the world was. But everyone here... they couldn't bear to leave this world and return back to the real world. And when the twenty-four hours was up, they decided they would rather stay and forget anything bad had ever happened."

Hope boggled. "What?"

"The Revival Project." Mosley was back to staring at space again. "A virtual Cocoon— Estheim, are you not getting this?"

"I get it." Hope snapped. "I just don't understand how they managed to do— this, without anyone on Gran Pulse knowing. We thought they all just _disappeared_."

"They didn't think it would work. It was only supposed to take a small group of people, maybe enough to fill a room, but it was more powerful than they thought it would be. It took the entire world."

"How do you even know all of this?" Hope demanded. "How come you didn't tell anyone about it?"

"You think I could? I've been stuck here since I found out. Since before. I was here before the system overwrite, when people still understood that this was nothing but VR. But this morning, that's when everything changed. After they decided to stay, it's like they forgot anything relating to the purge or Cocoon Fall." He gave a short, barking laugh. "They don't even know — some of them talk to people who don't _exist_ anymore. It's like this place is eager to give them everything they ever wanted back. And the override's been used. Twenty-four hours, and that's what going to happen to us as well."

"But we could track your signal." Hope protested. "That's how I knew where you were."

Mosley turned. "You tracked me?"

"Yes!" Hope waved at the suit, still not daring to get any closer to the man, half convinced the other was crazy in some way. "Pretty much to the exact location, too!"

Mosley snatched up his suit to study it, revealing the blinking light of the tracking device.

"I didn't think it would get through." He admitted quietly, most of the anger draining from his voice. "None of my transmissions get through. How did this...?"

Hope didn't understand, either. But he wasn't as ready to accept everything as Mosley had. If the tracking signal could get through, then they could get messages through somehow. It also revealed a few things — if what Mosley had said about virtual reality was true, it meant that it was a field spread all over Cocoon. After all, the tracking device led him down under Cocoon, and that was where Mosley had been. That meant it wasn't all contained in _one_area, like some computer hard-drive. It was spread all around where he walked, as if they were ghosts walking around Cocoon.

"What time is it?" Mosley snapped suddenly, and Hope blinked.

"I don't know? Around noon?"

"Noon." Mosley mused. "Six more hours for me. Come then, Estheim, we've six hours to figure out how to leave this place."

He turned on his heel and walked away, as if expecting Hope to follow, and the young boy seethed. What kind of person was Mosley, anyway? For a lieutenant, the man seemed more like a snappy scientist than anything else. Hope had rarely been exposed to people like him, the type who seemed to take the world around him for granted in a manner that meant everyone should cater to his needs. His mom had taken him aside the first time he had, once when his dad had brought home an important work associate for dinner, and told him that no matter how irritating the man was, he was to smile and nod.

Afterward, she had said, she would listen to _all _his complaints about how the man was a meanie-head and poop-face.

(Back then, he had gasped at his mom using that type of language and laughed as she made faces at him, and somehow that exchange had kept his spirits up all through dinner even as he struggled not to cry when the mean man subtly picked on everything from his small stature to how he must not have many friends at school or be any good at sports. In the end, it had been his dad who stormily asked the man to please leave.)

Now his mom wasn't there to make faces to cheer up him, but Hope knew that there was little he had to worry about. He could handle his own insecurities, and it wasn't as if the man knew him, or that his opinion mattered to Hope much.

Still, it was the _attitude _that irritated Hope, even as he followed the man. He was there to retrieve Mosley, after all, so the man had to be his first priority. Which mean he couldn't accidentally lose him, as irritating as he was.

"Where are we going if you don't have a clue how to get us out yet?" Hope asked.

"An experiment. You said you could track me?"

"Well, yeah."

"And then you disappeared, yes?" Mosley made a noise. "Never mind. Of course you wouldn't know, you just ended up here. But assume that you disappeared up in the Cocoon we know — the one that's dark and dead. Do the rest of your team know how you disappeared?"

Hope assumed Snow and Lebreau would figure it had something to do with that strange orb thing in the street. "They should."

"_Should_." The man snorted. "Is not good enough. No. We're going to take the suit back up and place it where the transporter should be so they'll _know _there is something odd about it."

Loathe as he was to admit, Hope could see how that was a good idea.

Above the sub-base level, the scientists gave Mosley a wide berth, barely acknowledging his existence with a nod before scurrying away, as if somehow knowing he didn't belong. They didn't have any problems getting out from underneath the city, where they met the two soldiers guarding the same entrance, both of who stepped back respectfully.

"You got a transmitter, Estheim?" Mosley asked casually as they wandered through the streets, this time practically ignored the moment someone saw the Guardian Corps insignia on Lieutenant Mosley's uniform.

"I wouldn't know." Hope admitted.

"You should have been briefed before you mission."

Hope huffed. "We didn't exactly have the _time _for a full briefing, since we were told about this the night before. It was supposed to be an easy mission— get you, and get out."

"Well, it has evolved far beyond that, hasn't it?" Mosley quipped. The sunlight made it harder for Hope to stay irritated, drawing his attention to the people around them just going about their day, chattering happily to each other hurrying to their next location. He had once been like that.

"Don't those people even realize that this place isn't real?" Hope murmured to himself.

"Do you? If I hadn't told you this was virtual reality?" Mosley stopped at a random point in the street, the only clear spot in an otherwise busy street. "Does the street not feel solid? The light not feel real? Isn't it warm when it's only been cold on Cocoon the past several months?"

He snorted. "No. The construct that created this place is very thorough. If they choose not to believe in the tragic demise of Cocoon, they they are safe here, sheltered from the truth."

He dropped the suit down in the middle of the street, mindless of the people surrounding them. "Yours too, Estheim."

Normally, Hope would have questioned that decision, but he was sure his irritation would only mount if he tried to question Mosley. He dropped the armful of blue bio-suit down on the ground atop the other suit.

"Now what?"

"Now we figure out why that signal was able to get through when our comms system can not. Tell me, Estheim, are you any use at a terminal?"

"It's _Hope_." He snapped out, because _Estheim_ made him feel like he had gotten into trouble at school. "And yes, I know my way around computers." He was fourteen, not four. What fourteen year old couldn't operate a computer?

The tall man (scientist? Soldier?) stared at him with narrowed eyes for a moment before he nodded as if Hope had passed some sort of test. Or failed it. Either way, he seemed to have come to some kind of conclusion about the young boy.

"Then you're going to help me hack this system. Find a way to transmit the signal out into the real world and tell them where we are and what's going on. Even if we don't make it out, they're not to send more people to check this out. People here are as safe as they can get, and this is their own choice."

_Idiotic choice_, was the unspoken comment.

"Wait, what do you mean 'if we don't make it out'? We've got six hours to solve this right? You can't just give up before that time's up!"

"I'm not giving up, Estheim." Hope steamed at the purposeful use of his last name. "I'm being realistic. They shouldn't have sent a kid up here, never mind Bartholomew's kid. This was a dangerous mission from the get-go, and I don't have time babysitting you, so you're going to have to make yourself useful."

"I _am_ useful!"

"You think so? You've got," Mosley pointed to a digital clock at the side of an advertising billboard. "Six hours to prove it to me.

"Starting now."

.

.

.

**Day 2, part 2**

.

* * *

.

**AN:** ...okay, now I'm slowing down. ^^;; 8k+ of words in under 2 days is a bit much for me, and burning out's not an option when I've still got Big Bang to write. And finally, headway into this story! Sorry about the lack of editing, I'm kind of just shoving it out. And wow, people still reading! /loves You guys are the reasons why this is out so fast! If I'm lucky, there'll be another chapter out next week or the week after (and this time, it _will_ have Maqui in it, promise!). This is turning out a lot more plotty than the previous Kinematics stories, which I hope isn't disappointing people. But it's a point I have to get through, because not everything revolves around their budding friendship, and if Hope's meant to be important now in the scheme of things, he's got loads of other things to worry about.


	4. Day 2, part 3

"What do you mean, _gone_?" Lightning demanded, her pace speeding up rather than faltering. Gadot and Sazh would just have to catch up with her if they wanted to stay in a group, then, because she wasn't slowing down for them. They were adults, they knew how to run.

"He was right there, we were talking to him, and then he stopped responding. And we couldn't find him." Snow explained, although his voice was terse. "Sis, listen. We're looking for him, I swear we're going to find him, so just— don't take it out on Lebreau. Please. She's flipping out over here with worry. It was my decision, I made the final call."

Her teeth were grinding as she pushed herself to run _faster, what the hell had happened over there?_ and keep her breaths steady at the same time. It was a far enough distance that she refused to be winded before she got there. "Snow. What. Happened."

"We found Mosley's location, but it's under the city. With the power out, there's no way to get in or out of the walkways, so we decided to search the shops for supplies." His voice wavered a moment. "Hope made good points for splitting up. I agreed with him."

Of course Hope would opt for splitting up. It was the same decision Lightning had made when they had reached Eden's crash site. Splitting up made the search faster. So far, there had been no dangers on the dead Cocoon. He really was far too much like her, and Sazh was right: soon enough, he would be a soldier and Lightning wouldn't be able to keep him away from danger.

She wouldn't allow that to happen.

"Tell me about the generator you found." Because it was going to take her time to get there (damn the limitations of a human body), and she was going to make sure that she used that time to assess the situation. The area reminded her of the Vile Peaks, ruins and darkness surrounding the once vibrant cities. But there were no enemies in these areas — everything had either died or been cleared out after the fall of Cocoon, with most people able to survive because they had kept themselves ensconced in safe areas. Those who were outside, who hadn't been able to brace themselves for the planet falling, they were the ones who didn't survive.

"Not sure it's a generator." Snow admitted. "I'm staying in front of it in case something happens, but... Lebreau is out looking for Hope."

Good. She had to stay unaffected by this enough to make objective decisions. "And you said it suddenly powered up?"

"Completed offline before." Snow confirmed. "I don't know what's powering this thing now, but there's definitely something weird about it. Hope was the one who said there was something off— that it looked newer than anything around here, pre-Cocoon Fall."

Lightning thought to the blueprints that Sazh had dug up. Could it be that?

"Stay put. I'll be there soon enough." She cut the call off, mentally seething. She wasn't sure who she was angry at, be it herself or Snow or even Hope for disappearing, but it was an anger that would have to wait until things were back to normal.

She had spent far too long making back-up plans for everyone she cared about to lose Hope on her own mission. If something had happened to Serah... if something happened to Hope... she didn't know what to do. It was a weakness, but it had been a weakness that kept her going.

"Looks like it wasn't the rambling of some madman in his diary, then," Sazh commented behind her, out of breath. "So they really built that."

"Question is, what is it?" Lightning asked, not looking back. "What does it have to do with the disappearances?"

She didn't know, but she was more than determined to find out now. There was no way that the council would have created something that would wipe out the population of Cocoon, so what was it? A teleportation device? If so, where did it take the people?

How would she activate it?

"Guess we'll see." Sazh said, and then fell silent as he worked on keeping his footsteps even with her's. Being a l'Cie had increased all their stamina exponentially, and Lightning worked hard to keep that stamina even as their brands faded. It was an advantage she wasn't ready to yield to an enemy.

Gadot was suspiciously silent, and she had to bite her tongue to refrain from commenting on that. Was he judging her decision? Her choice of team? She imagined Lebreau was doing that right now, and would be ready to confront her the moment she arrived on scene.

The next half hour passed in tense silence and the heavy footfalls of running as she bypassed the timed call from Lieutenant Amodar, responding with a busy signal. He would understand, even if he worried over what could possibly have prompted her to send that signal. It meant they were alive and well, but didn't have time to respond just yet. She'd get back to him later.

She saw the light of the orb in the street before she saw the flare, especially since Snow had not been exaggerating about how the thing lit up an entire street. It lit up all the details of the street, and could be seen from far away, the blue of Snow's bio-suit nearly white in the glare.

He looked up at her appearance, and then scrambled up to his feet where he had been sitting against a wall, his back tense as he continued his stare at the lightened orb in front of him.

"Lebreau's on her way back." He told her before she could pose a question.

"How's she doing?" And this time, it was Gadot's voice, softer than Lightning would have expected, that interrupted.

Snow shook his head. "She's pretty shaken. Kind of had it as her personal mission to keep the kid safe. It's my fault, but... she's taking it hard. If anyone can find him again, it'd be her."

"Hold on a minute." Sazh cut in, but his tone was distracted, and Lightning turned to see him staring at the bright orb, one hand under his chin in thought. "I saw something like this. On the vids when they were scanning over Cocoon yesterday. They had one in Sunleth, one in Bresha. Thought it was just some comms device that they built independent of fal'Cie technology..."

"So you're saying this has nothing to do with the disappearances?" She asked. On one hand, that would be it wasn't the cause of Hope's disappearance either, but on the other... they would be back to step one.

"Now I ain't saying that." Sazh held up his hands to stop their questions. "I'm just saying there's more than one of these, that's for sure. And more than just in this city. Could be another clue, for all we know. But right now, it's not making much sense to me."

"If these are communications arrays, why are they lit up like this?" Snow shook his head. "That wouldn't make sense, would it? Nothing else on Cocoon has any power right now—?"

"And ain't that strange now?" Sazh muttered.

Lightning stepped in. "Sazh is right. Even without the fal'Cie, Cocoon should have power. We provide them enough for communications and transport and at least the basic necessities. There were plans to rebuild some cities in Cocoon, and rumors of an elevator between Cocoon and Pulse."

Sazh nodded. "And this place is deader than a doornail. Can't believe we didn't notice that before."

Gadot made a frustrated noise. "That doesn't explain anything."

"No, it doesn't." Lightning turned back to Snow. The only way to solve whatever was going on was to find someone who might know more than them. "You said that Lieutenant Mosley is under the city?"

"Yeah. Here—" Snow pulled out the abandoned tracker and switched it on again, the light negligible next to the brightness of the orb. He stilled. "Wait. It's moved."

"You expected him to stay in one spot?" Lightning questioned dryly, although she moved closer to examine the device as well. She had somewhat expected Mosley to not move if he had somehow been injured in a manner that meant he wasn't answering his calls. Her brows furrowed slightly as she took in the readings. "Did you break this?"

"What? No!" Snow shook the device, but then looked up. "Well, he's not under the city anymore. If anything, he should be standing in front of us. I don't understand."

"Well. Maybe he is." Sazh shrugged. "You said this thing just lit up, yeah? Maybe it activated somehow, and Mosley's trying to tell us something."

"Great. More riddles." She grunted. This wasn't conducive to her mission at all, or bearing leads as to where Hope went. And if she knew the younger boy, she knew he would never just run off without at least contacting them about it. No. Whatever this was, he had been _taken_...

"Snow. Hope's suit—"

"I tried that." Snow interrupted with a shake of his head. "Nothing. No signal of it anywhere."

Nothing. She wasn't going to accept that.

"Fine. Call me when Lebreau returns. I'll do my own investigation."

.

* * *

.

The computers were useless. For one, the level of encryption was far above what Hope was used to, and for another, they didn't respond the way proper computers did. It was possible that it was because they were in virtual reality instead, where everything around them consisted on zeroes and ones. A computer terminal wasn't going to help a whit.

"There's nothing here that even _hints _this place isn't real." Hope complained, wishing the holographic surface would at least be solid enough that he could whack it a few good times.

"Did you expect it to?" Mosley asked from his own terminal, close to the edge of Carbuncle. He didn't even look up, too focused on his own screens.

The temptation to smack the computer into making sense faded away, and Hope sulked. "No. But it doesn't make sense how we could find your suit's signal. Why that and not the comms? It's not because yours is broken since I couldn't contact anyone on mine, either."

Mosley made an irritated noise. "_Must_ we revisit facts we already know, Estheim?"

"_Yes_." That was just how he absorbed information, and it annoyed Hope that Mosley couldn't seem to accept that. If they at least went over it, then maybe they'd be able to find some kind of loophole that they had missed. Some detail that might progress their search further. "How do you expect to learn things if you don't talk about them?"

"I've told you what you need to know." Mosley dismissed. "There's no need for reiteration."

Hope huffed. This was _useless_, he couldn't seem to talk to Lieutenant Mosley at all. The man wasn't willing to indulge even in casual conversation, claiming that it disturbed his work and concentration, and disliked giving Hope any clue as to how he was supposed to help.

Six hours to prove himself useful, yeah right. It was more like six hours for Mosley to snipe at his intelligence.

What could possibly have allowed the suit's beacon to pierce the veil between this digitized reality and the one where they were actually in Cocoon? Granted, the signal was weaker than the communications system, in that it needed much less power. There were limits to the comms device, after all, such as distance and interference. The beacon was meant to bypass those limits so that anyone searching for it would be able to find it in layers of rubble and radioactive barriers.

It was weak, but resilient. Was that it? No, it couldn't be. If the answer were that simple, then Mosley would have found it already.

Hope looked up. "What's the difference between communication waves and distress signals? I mean, frequency-wise."

"Is this going to be important, Estheim?" Mosley asked, voice distracted.

"It could be."

Mosley heaved a heavy sigh and took his attention away from the computer monitors. "If you're trying to insinuate that we could create another signal using the same frequencies as distress beacons, I must tell you that I already tried that last night and seeing as the only message you managed to receive from me still was my location... no, it doesn't work."

Hope glared. "You could have just said that in the first place. And I told you before, my name is _Hope_."

Mosley turned back to his work. "So far, you have come up with nothing to impress me, Estheim. Are you really your father's son?"

He bristled. What— _what even_—

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Bartholomew Estheim is a brilliant man." Mosley said, never once looking up again. "A brilliant politician who has managed to diffuse a very deadly situation with nothing but words and promises. He and Captain Rygdea have become Gran Pulse's hope for stability. The hope that," Mosley peered at him over the terminals, disapproving, "You have not lived up to."

"I wasn't aware I had anything to live up to." And if the response was fiercer than Hope had intended, he didn't really care. What was that man trying to insinuate, anyway? That he wasn't good enough for... what? To be his father's son? That he wasn't good enough to have a father who was trying to fight for him? Hope seethed. _This man_. He couldn't _stand _him!

"He spends a lot of time and effort protecting a child whom the public has rarely seen." Mosley continued. "It's obvious in every speech he gives, in every conference he attends. 'The future for the children', he says, and 'keeping hope' that things will work out. And yet... here you are. Up in Cocoon, trapped in a virtual reality and unable to find your way out. Tell me. Does your father even know you're up here? Did you tell him? Did he allow it?"

Hope's eyes were wide, and he found himself unable to respond. Sure, he had told his dad that— that he was following Lightning up to Cocoon, that he had been allowed on this mission and—

He didn't remember his dad's response. Only that he had been mad, and that they had argued, but eventually he had been given (very reluctant) permission to come up.

"Respect must be earned, and I have none for errant children who run around without a thought as to the consequences." Mosley said, tone sharper than Hope had ever heard. "And until that respect is earned, you are undeserving of the name gifted to you."

It was _damning _and personal and Hope hadn't expected words like that. He had expected that maybe the Lieutenant didn't want to work with him because of his past, because of his status as a ex-l'Cie, because of how he had taken a part in... the end of the world.

He hadn't expected to be judged because he somehow _wasn't good enough_, and not good enough for what? Compared to _who_?

_That's not fair!_ He wanted to protest. What the hell was he supposed to live up to, anyway? Hadn't he already lived up to what his father expected? Stayed the good kid, stayed quiet and polite as much he could, got good grades in school and never got into trouble if he could help it?

Wasn't that good enough?

He could have turned out so much worse, but he _hadn't_! He played by all the restrictions that he had been given, all the rules that he suddenly had to follow because he wasn't allowed to shine in ways he could, because he wasn't allowed so much as learning how to fight to defend himself.

All of this— how was this his fault? How as it his fault that he had found himself stuck here? Yes, he had wanted to come. He wanted to _help_. Why was he suddenly at fault for that?

He could have rebelled. He could have caused a scene. He could have... he could have done _anything_ differently than what he had so far, and made things so much worse. But he hadn't, had he?

He hadn't acted up, hadn't even _thought_ about even though he knew of many others his age who did, who deviated from the path set by their parents.

Instead of saying any of that, Hope swallowed his bitterness and shock and stilled the shaking that wanted to happen. Once upon a time, he had given into his rage. Nothing good had come of that, though, and he had told himself he wouldn't do it again. It wasn't worth the pain that came from it.

"Why do you hate me so much?" He asked instead, making sure his voice was steady even as his eyes stayed downcast at the glow of his screen, not registering any of the written words.

Mosley didn't respond, and for a few long seconds, the only sounds around them was the steady hum of Carbuncle, of the soft beeping of computers.

"You assume I hate you." Mosley responded, quieter. "I don't. But you need to think about your actions, kid. The very ones that landed you up here. If I don't make it out? That's fine, I discussed this with my commanding officer already. But you're not military. You have a father who's been trying to move the world to keep you safe. You shouldn't be up here.

"This place is for the people who lost everything. Staying is giving up, which is something I don't do, but even if I failed, it would be alright. Do you understand that, Estheim? What I'm saying?"

Oh. _Oh._

Hope didn't, or maybe he didn't want to. A part of it made sense to him, but there was a part of him that denied the coherency, almost as when he had first turned l'Cie and couldn't swallow his own fate. He _knew_, but it didn't want to comprehend.

But he wasn't that kid who couldn't handle being a monster anymore.

"You were planning on staying here." Hope deduced, because that's what it meant under all of Mosley's grump and irritation and disparaging. Mosley wouldn't have given up, but he had been happy enough to accept defeat if he couldn't find a solution.

"Staying is not an option." Mosley denied. "My priorities were to get information on what happened to the people of Cocoon back to the Guardian Corps. My priorities have now changed to getting _you _back safe to your father."

"I can take care of myself." But those words felt empty and hollow, dry in his throat whereas once he had been proud of that statement and willing to prove it at just about any cost. He swallowed once, twice, to try and dislodge the sandy feeling in his mouth. "I can."

Mosley gave him a long stare before returning to his data, having nothing more to say.

Hope tried his best to pay attention to what he had been looking at before, but it was hard with the knowledge that— that it didn't matter if he had tried so hard not to be a burden, that he was doing his best to make his own way, because no matter what he tried to do, he would be a burden on others. Stay home and be useless, or go out and have everyone worry about him; have people have to change their priorities because of him.

That wasn't what he had meant to do. He just wanted to help out and prove that he could pull his own weight, because he wasn't useless.

Now, though, he felt worse than useless. At least if he hadn't done anything, no one would have to go out of the way to look out for him. It was mere words, but they rang too true in his head. How many times had people gotten hurt because of him? How many times had everyone else gone out of the way to either keep him safe or keep him out of trouble?

Before, there was no choice but the continue on, but now he had the option of staying behind. Except he couldn't stand to not be useful, especially knowing of the things that came from stepping back and letting others take care of the situation for him. It never ends well.

_We can still do things down here to help._

Maybe Maqui had been right. Maybe Hope was supposed to stay down on Gran Pulse for this mission, watching after the others in a manner that wouldn't worry them.

Hope ducked his head further, feeling unable to concentrate on the words on the screen. He just wanted to prove himself _useful_.

Why was that so hard?

He hadn't even thought about— hadn't thought about what his dad would do if he got trapped here. He hadn't really thought of other people, really, when he decided he wanted to be on the front lines. Just that he didn't want to fail his own expectations, and wasn't that supposed to be enough?

"Why do you care?" Hope finally asked, unable to concentrate on his work. He didn't want to be spiteful, but he couldn't understand why Lieutenant Mosley seemed so adamant on talking to him about his dad. He didn't know the other man further than the fact that he was in the Guardian Corps and had been the one sent up to Cocoon for the reconnaissance mission. He had never met the other man before today. Had never even heard of the other man.

Mosley hesitated suspiciously in his typing, as if he had braced himself for that question already; knew it was coming.

"I don't." He responded tersely, fingers flying over the holographic keyboard again. "But children should never be sent anywhere dangerous."

Was that it? Hope thought. "So this is because you think I'm just some kid who can't handle it?"

"There is no such thing as 'just some kid'." Mosley corrected, refusing to turn in Hope's direction. "Not when there are parents to care for them; adults who worry over their safety. The key thing for adults, Estheim, is understanding that children are to be protected. Throwing yourself in danger is counterproductive to anything rational."

"That doesn't just apply to kids." Hope protested after taking a moment to think that statement over, to nitpick it in a way he rarely did. It was the way Mosley had said it, the tone that hinted at something more than just an overall statement. It wasn't something he had just been taught, but believed in reverently. "That applies to everyone. There's always someone who cares and worries, not just parents. And not just for kids."

There was some part of his conversation that he was missing.

"What do you think a parent feels when they lose a child? When they had the power to look after their children, and could have done more, but couldn't have foreseen what happened?" Mosley's fist came down hard on the console, hard enough that Hope jumped back in shock even from where he was. "It's more than the death of just anyone. More than just losing a friend or even a normal family member. How do you think it feels for a parent to lose a child?"

Hope thought of Sazh, those days they had been l'Cie down on Pulse and the man had smiled at him and told him not to wander off to far away from the others. Sazh had lost his son then, even though Dahj hadn't died. The man had never said anything about it, and Hope hadn't known him well enough to assume otherwise for his personality, but Sazh had been _different_ then. A different that he knew only now, now that he and Dahj had been reunited. Hope had assumed it was not just because of that, but also because of the fact that they had fulfilled their Focus and didn't have the Cie'th timer hanging over their heads.

He didn't know. All he knew was how hard it had been to lose his mom. It was a pain that wouldn't fade and wouldn't go away. It had been months, but Hope's nightmares of the Hanged Edge hadn't faded. His nightmares of turning Cie'th hadn't faded. In fact, sometimes they got inventive enough to combine those two or more fears of his.

"You lost a child." Hope concluded, voice soft. He couldn't understand that pain at all. The closest he had come to it was losing a parent, and losing all the stability his mom had been to him. His world had tilted and fallen then, long before Cocoon actually did.

Mosley tensed. "That is not something I want to discussed with a former l'Cie."

It was recent, then, according to the venom in his voice. During the fall of Cocoon. Something to do with the Pulse l'Cie.

Hope looked down again and swallowed thickly. "Oh."

What could he even say to that? It wasn't as if anything he said would be able to make a difference. Hope was used to people who saw him as nothing more than an ex-Pulse l'Cie, but that branding still hurt. It wasn't a physical brand anymore, not like the one he had, but now it was a mental one. A brand that everyone seemed to be able to see when they looked in his direction.

It was understandable, he knew. A third of the world had died during the fall of Cocoon, and even if they hadn't any other choice and the fall had been inevitable, he had been one who actually lifted a weapon against Orphan. That battle was what caused the fall of Eden, the fall of Cocoon.

Was this why Mosley didn't want him fighting? Because he had already done enough damage? But that seemed... wrong. If that was the case, if he blamed Hope for the fall of Cocoon and most likely for the loss of a child, why was he working to help Hope get out of the virtual world?

...But then, why wouldn't he if this world was supposed to be perfect?

His fingers clenched at the terminal, and Hope grabbed for a portable computer, deciding that it wouldn't do right now to dwell on those thoughts. Time was ticking away, and six hours was nothing when he not only have to find a way to communicate with the outside world, but for the outside world to figure out a way to get them both out as well.

"I'm going to go... check on the suits." Hope said lamely, gesturing weakly with a hand despite the fact that Mosley never looked up at him.

Getting no response from the other man, Hope left as quietly as possible.

.

* * *

.

"Hey."

Maqui jerked out of the light doze he had fallen into as Yuj laid a hand on his shoulder. The younger boy jerked, nearly knocking over the cup of tea that had been placed by the comms relay board next to where he had decided to place his feet.

"Aren't you supposed to be manning this thing?" Yuj asked, one hand ruffling Maqui's hair even as the younger teen groaned and tried to shove his hands away. "I think you're sleeping on the job, man."

"G'way," Maqui grumbled, although he yawned and stretched after that, straightening his back out of the seat and making muffled noises as he tried to work the sleep induced drowsiness away. "I'm manning it, I'm manning it. Communications a-okay over here, alright? No breakdowns, no alarms going off, no end of the world."

"Yeah, you missed that by a day. Haven't you heard?" Yuj quipped as he pulled up another swivel chair and dropped into the seat, grabbing at the cold cup of tea. "How're they doing, anyway?"

Maqui had to take a moment to actually check his readings, still fighting the remnants of sleep as he said, "Looks okay. No technical breakdowns yet."

He gave another yawn. Man, this backstage stuff was boring. It didn't help that he had stayed up half the night before either, trying to find a few extra parts to ensure that the comms devices would be working (and then building an extra to stay in touch with Hope). So far, no one had gotten back to him yet, though, but he figured that they wouldn't. Too busy exploring and having fun and stuff. No one really thought about the tech guy, but Maqui was used to that.

Yuj looked sympathetic. "Not much sleep last night?"

"Don't think I got _any_ sleep," Maqui grumbled, slumped over the top of his machines. "How was I supposed to sleep after that?"

"Yeah, it's not everyday that the world decides to blow information out of proportions, isn't it?"

"I meant Lebreau, jackass." Maqui said with a roll of his eyes. Yeah, the information about everyone on Cocoon disappearing was jarring, but it hadn't really hit home yet, not when he didn't really know anyone who had stayed on Cocoon and he was pretty sure that Snow and the others would solve this thing by the end of the day. That was what heroes did. "She never gets upset."

"Oh, she gets upset a lot." Yuj responded mysteriously. "You just haven't been paying attention lately."

"What does that mean?" Maqui asked, bewildered.

Yuj just waved the question off. "Nothing, nothing. You've just had other stuff on your mind lately, right? School and stuff. Don't worry about it."

"No, I wanna know what that means!" Maqui whinged. "You can't just say that and leave it there!"

"It means you've got other things to focus on, alright? C'mon, Maqui, just leave it. I shouldn't have brought it up in the first place."

Maqui paused. "You promised Lebreau you wouldn't talk about it?"

"Well, yeah."

The blond huffed, pulling his goggles over his eyes in irritation. "Oh, fine, whatever. Then _I'm_ not used to seeing her upset, and couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, yeah." Yuj leaned back on the seat and kicked up his legs onto the console, arms behind his head in a posture of relaxation. "And trying to figure out how to get yourself on the mission, right? I heard you arguing with Lebreau about that this morning."

Maqui groaned and tried to bury his face in his arms. It hadn't been so much an argument as her cutting him down at every turn. She hadn't even looked like she was _trying_, either. Had his skills of persuasion gotten so bad that he could be knocked down effortlessly?

"It's not like she even listened to me." He grumbled, then peeked out without lifting his head. "What's with that, anyway? It was the same thing with Snow and Gadot this morning. I know they had this mission, but you'd think they'd at least pretend that I have a valid point."

Yuj laughed. "Man, even you say that you didn't have a valid point, how are they supposed to take you seriously?"

"Easily," Maqui grumbled childishly. He lifted his head and tapped against one of the music players on the corner of his desk, looking for some background noise. It was too quiet with just him and Yuj in NORA house, and even the squeaky voices of popular singers crooning about everlasting love and difficulties felt better than the silence.

Yuj made a disgusted noise. "Dude, you listen to the _worst _things."

"My equipment, my choice of music." Maqui said, although there was no bite to it. He leaned back and stretched, making a satisfied noise as his sore muscles pulled in a way that dissipated the ache. Now that he was feeling better and more awake, he turned his attentions on the communications relay he had set up. He wasn't actually going to listen in on the conversations, mostly because he understood the need for privacy and knew that if he was needed, someone would call for him, but he still checked to make sure they were working properly.

"Sure are lots of talking going on up there." He squinted at the lines. He had expected it to be pretty quiet, mostly because Lightning was intimidating and he'd probably stay silent in her vicinity unless she demanded something of him. "Think they're talking about us?"

"Don't be so vain," Yuj said, although his attention was already elsewhere. "You always think people are talking about you. Why would they be talking about us on some important mission?"

"I dunno." Maqui frowned at the readings. All the comms devices were working correctly, yes, but there was a suspicious silence going on with all that talking up there. "Hey. You think Hope's _really_ dedicated to this mission?"

"I think that kid's too dedicated to everything." Yuj responded. "Why?"

Maqui took a moment to check through his readings again. "He's not talking. The rate of noise we're getting up there, people seem to be yelling at each other or something. Everything's working fine, too, nothing's broken..."

"Maybe he just doesn't like being yelled at, then." Yuj deduced casually, obviously not too worried about it. "I don't know anyone who _does_."

Maqui tried his best to believe that, but there was a nagging sense that told him otherwise. "No, that couldn't be it. He'd still be listening in, at least. This isn't—" He quelled the urge to turn on the device from his side and listen into whatever they had to say. None of those on the mission would appreciate his prying, he knew. "This is complete radio silence we're talking about here."

But he had more than just that one line of communications with them. He still had the device that he had managed to hobble together last night, that one link to Hope he hadn't given up.

He scrambled out of his seat, an urgency that he hadn't felt before pushing him to find the unit amongst the mess in the room. The entire place had been hastily put together, after all, near the base of the pillar and closer to the Cie'th Stone that had taken the group away.

He hadn't brought a lot of equipment with him ("_Not a lot?_" Yuj had shrieked when they were tasked with moving the tech around. "If by _not a lot_, you mean how Lightning was _not so pleased_ when Snow and Serah first got engaged!" "But she wasn't?" "It's the exaggeration that counts!"), knowing that it was all supposed to be moved back to his garage come nightfall and the group came home. Still, it was enough for him to have created the familiar chaotic space he was used to moving around in, and Maqui had to throw a few things around to find the other half of the bulky communications device he had given Hope.

He paused when he had the cool metal in his hands, realizing that with the suits that the group had gone up in, it would be near impossible for Hope to access that device. Not if it was in a pocket or something.

"What the hell's that thing?" Yuj asked from where he still sat in his chair, watching his best friend move about curiously.

Maqui adopted a histrionic sigh. "Just something I made yesterday."

"Is it like the watch you made for Snow? The one that's supposed to withstand anything? Because I've got to tell you, man, that's one ugly thing you built there."

Maqui resisted the urge to pout. "It's a comms device! And that watch was a piece of art, man! I've had people come around asking for me to make more of those for ages and you know it!"

"Your slogan of how it would last ten thousand years or not, I doubt anyone would have wanted one if I hadn't given you some designs to follow."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Maqui brushed off, and slouched back over to his seat, throwing the device on the table along with all his other odds and ends at the moment. "Doubt it'd work right now, anyway. It was just a stupid idea on my part, I guess."

He moped for a second before yelping as Yuj hit him over the back of the head. "What was that for?"

"Just because I'm allowed to make fun of your inventions doesn't mean you get to call them stupid." Yuj snapped. "Have faith, man. All your stuff is good, okay? You just gotta believe in that yourself."

Maqui rubbed at the back of his head. "Hope put it in his pocket. With the suit on, he'd never even be able to reach it."

"So it's a fault of the suit, not one of yours. You could have said to put in the equipment or something, you know. That's not a fault of your design, that's just idiotic of _you_."

"Hey!" Maqui protested. "That's not fair!"

"Plenty fair." Yuj responded, and went back to his former slouched position. "Besides, just because he can't reach it doesn't mean he can't hear you, right?"

Maqui gave the device on the table a thoughtful look. "That's true."

"Well, go on, then. Unless you've got things to say that you need me out of the room for. If so, good on you, but I've got to tell you that I think you're moving a bit fast— hey, watch it!" Yuj ducked as Maqui throw an empty casing at him, and laughed as the younger teen made a disgusted face. "Alright, alright! I don't comment. I'll leave you to it, wonder boy."

As the older boy exited the room, Maqui turned his attentions back on the bulky comms device.

.

* * *

.

The one thing that Hope realized was different between Cocoon and Gran Pulse was that leaving to get fresh air didn't work as well on Cocoon, or at least he simulated version of Cocoon. He didn't remember if air felt fresh or not before the whole l'Cie incident, but he knew that he had never noticed a difference. On Pulse, though, air felt fresher outside, thicker and crisp along the breeze carrying the smells of plants and flowers and dirt. It was a little like the Sunleth Waterscapes, he thinks.

Here, there wasn't a difference between under Palumpolum or out in the streets. The air felt the same inside and outside, and it held the same degree of freshness either way. And here, in the so-called virtual world, no one stared at him or even gave him a second look. Everyone looked busy, looked like they were enjoying themselves, and it was as if nothing was wrong.

Hope hadn't realized how much he missed that.

He missed being able to walk down a street without having to duck his head and hurry his steps because the whispers had already started, and having to strain in order to smile as Maqui babbled on and on about random things, trying his hardest to ignore as the passer-bys would startle as they saw him and then take a wider berth to avoid him.

Everyone was different down on Pulse, but it had been so much worse on Cocoon. Hope had never returned while people were still there. He had enough survival instincts to understand that returning would only be taunting people to take their anger out on him.

So while he lived with the whispers and glares daily, he had never been personally hit with blame before. Not face to face, and not completely. He was used to ducking away, sliding through the anger rather than confronting it. It was... different.

He breathed deeply as he passed through the streets, making his way to the small pile of bio-suits, wondering why no one had bothered trying to move them or even really took any notice of them at all.

_Face it later,_Hope reminded himself as he tried to struggle through the smothering guilt. The fall of Cocoon, the deaths of one third of the population; even the death of his mother... it was still too much and too soon. He would deal with it when he could, and now was not the time. He had other things to concentrate on now, such as getting himself and Lieutenant Mosley out of this mess.

At least he could say that he hadn't gotten the other man _into _this mess. It was little consolation, but it was something nevertheless. And if he could get the two of them out of it... maybe he would have made up for something.

Just... a little bit. A tiny bit.

He crouched down near the suits, tucking his knees against his chest as he reached with one gloved hand to sift through the suits, trying to turn up the blinking comms signal by the neck. He might just be wasting his time, but he needed a moment away from Mosley and all that restrained animosity.

Just how much had his father been protecting him so far, anyway? How many laws had Bartholomew Estheim changed in order to allow his son to lead a decent life? From what Hope could get from his dad, he was merely the financial adviser of the standing government before the events of the kidnapping. Now he was running for a small office, one that he was near guaranteed from his knowledge of how everything worked.

He and Captain Rygdea and even Lieutenant Amodar (who he had overheard from his dad was overdue for a promotion) were working so hard to make sure everyone on Gran Pulse would be okay.

What had he been doing?

He had been staying quiet, trying to keep his head down and going to school. When this chance came to actually _do_ something that could be useful, Hope had grabbed at it with both hands. Now he wondered if it was the right thing to do. Had staying quiet been the right way to go about things?

If he needed time to face the events, then he could understand how everyone else needed time as well. He and the others were just convenient targets for blame, at least until people could properly go through their grief.

And then... and then he would be able to face it. His own actions and involvement.

His gloves came away slightly shimmery and Hope frowned, rubbing his fingers together to try and dispel that glitter. Dust? What was that doing on the suits? Specifically, what was that doing on Mosley's suit?

It was crystal dust, he realized a moment later. With all the crystal surrounding Cocoon, it wasn't too surprising. The Lieutenant had probably squeezed through an area between crystals and scraped a bit off. For something so exceptionally durable, it seemed to like sticking to people a lot. Enough that most people weren't allowed near the base of the pillar in fear that it would eventually wear away and break.

Phoenix was still high in the sky, but it had been at least an hour since they had started searching (maybe two? He hadn't checked a clock, but his thoughts had drowned out his sense of time). How would Lightning be reacting right now? Snow? Sazh? Lebreau and Gadot? He knew they'd be worried, _knew _it but apparently he hadn't... known. Hadn't thought it through from their point of view. Would they be searching for him right now?

The distress beacon took only a tiny sliver of power but had managed to get through the barrier between this virtual Cocoon and the real Cocoon. The regular comms system in the suit was highly advanced, able to call the distance between Cocoon and Gran Pulse easily and then some. They maintained multiple calls as well so that people could keep in contact at all times. It was much too advanced, too much compacted information being sent to make it through the barrier.

Now he was calling it a barrier as well. Was it even one, though?

Crystal dust... Hope's thoughts drifted, trying to stay far away from Lieutenant Mosley and the child he had lost. What was it about crystal dust?

The distress beacon was a simple signal. One beep to send to anyone close enough to find it. If he could duplicate that somehow...

Maqui's comms device was simple, wasn't it? It was a one-way communication in that the messages would only be able to get to Maqui, and vice versa. There weren't other channels on it, or the usage of multiple calls. But it would have to carry the signal too far. Wouldn't it?

Hope ran a gloved finger through the crystal dust.

If only he had...

If only he had what?

The comms device was still on the terminal of the computer he had been using down by Carbuncle, and he was _missing _something.

Crystals.

_They amplify power output by one point eight times._

Mosley's suit was covered with crystal dust.

Hope nearly jumped up with his haste, heart thudding. Was that what he had been missing all along? That extra jolt of energy needed in order to carry a message through? Dust wouldn't be enough, though, if he wanted to transmit something more than just a simple beep. To get a message through using the communications from the suit... the energy would be unbelievable. No way. He couldn't do something like that.

But Maqui's simple and bulky call relay... it would need more than the dust he had. And any crystal in this Cocoon would be nothing more than virtual, definitely nowhere near enough to send a message, if it provided any energy at all.

He set the portable computer he had brought with him on the ground, ignoring the nearby people walking about. If what he needed was crystal, the same crystal that could conduct energy as the pillar could...

He had— he could _feel _it still, the call of crystals in his blood. It had always been why he could do magic, even as he ignored the feeling most of the time. He could always feel it. And to get enough power to amplify a signal— he'd been something of considerable size. Bigger than the feeling he had, anyway.

He touched his left wrist tentatively, remembering the terror as he slowly watching his brand unfold. If this theory was true, or even if it wasn't, he had the ability to create a crystal that could be used to amplify power. A crystal that—

"Alexander," Hope whispered to himself, even though he knew that he had lost the ability to call upon the Eidolon. He had the crystals, but he had lost the ability to crush the power and send the call. _But he had the crystal._

The green light was bright even in the full daylight, and Hope nearly jolted back as the translucently green star-shaped crystal emerged from where his brand had been, bright and floating in the cup of his hands, the power radiant in a way that felt almost tangible.

He closed his hands around it, just now starting to realize the murmuring around him. There were still people on the street, some of whose attention had been caught by the bright light.

The suit communications was far too complicated, but a simple two-way relay might be simple enough.

With that thought, Hope took off in a dash, leaving the computer on the ground next to the suits without a thought, sneakers skidding around corners as he made his way back toward the underground entrance.

"Whoa, there!" One of the guards called out as he ran past, but Hope gave no indication of having heard, nor did he slow down in the slightest as he sprinted past them through the entrance, knowing well enough that they wouldn't stop him, having already seen him in the presence of Lieutenant Mosley.

The lift down took _forever_, and Hope curled his fingers around the green crystal protectively. Having it out in the open made him feel strangely vulnerable, as if he was showing a part of himself that shouldn't be seen by the world. Other people weren't meant to see it, he knew. Other people weren't meant to wield it.

"'Cuse me, coming through!" He called out as the lift stopped and he ducked through a group of scientists, several of them crying out in surprise as he whizzed past, one struggling to hold onto a cup of coffee.

He was down by his own terminal in no time, Mosley still in the same place where he had been mere... was it minutes ago? Nearing half an hour at the very least?

"Estheim." The man greeted in surprise, sounding disgruntled. "I expected you to take longer."

"Not here for that." Hope tried to explain, although his words slurred together. "I've got a theory!"

He grabbed at the bulky device he had left atop the terminal with one hand and pressed the glowing green crystal close to the object with the other, breathing a silent prayer. Four hours left, maybe, and they still had to find a way out _if_this worked.

Taking a breath before fumbling for the switch, Hope held it for a moment as he heard the static on the line. But no, he couldn't be deterred by that.

"Maqui?" He asked, mouth pressed against the receiver. _Please let this work!_ "C'mon, you said I could call if I needed to talk to you, right? I really need to talk to you right now!"

.

.

.

**End Day 2, part 3.**

.

* * *

.

**AN:** Wow, this is mostly just Hope's thoughts here, sorry about that. But to the anonymous reviewer, um, this universe does end with Maqui/Hope. _This_ story doesn't have much in terms of romance if you'd rather avoid relationship stuff, since it's supposed to be more character development and 'this is what happens in the world' thing, but the universe it's set in is kind of based around the two of them. And I've been wanting to incorporate elements from FFXIII-2 into this story, I hope people have noticed hints! I've been collecting fragments (halfway through) and building on the story, and there are these little shorts written by Maqui in the fragments there that talk about watches he made (it's also a side mission) and stuff. And do the crystals work? Well, I don't know until it's written, I guess. We are maybe halfway through this story (jeebus, how long is this?), soooo~ hopefully people will continue to read!


	5. Day 2, part 4

Maybe it was the surprise of hearing that voice again, but it took Maqui a few seconds to scramble out of his comfortable position slouched over his chair and reach for the other half of the transmitter he had given Hope. His line had been free from transmissions for so long that the blond had _worried_, even knowing he wasn't supposed to just call and check up on them.

"Hey!" He called out, pressing his face against the metal in relief. "I'm here. What's up? How did you manage to get the device from your suit? Hey, did you shut down your other comms? I'm not getting much of a signal from you otherwise, and I was worried—"

There was a breathy laugh on the other side, and Maqui immediately stopped his flow of words to hear it.

"I'm okay." Hope responded, voice quieter through the speaker, and Maqui had to press his ear against the device, frowning as he realized something must have been blocking the signal somewhat, because he was sure he tuned it to be crystal clear to catch the slightest whisper. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to get through to you, though."

"Of course you'd get through!" Maqui protested, pitching his voice louder in case Hope had just as hard a time hearing him as he had hearing the other teen. "I made these, didn't I? And I said you'd be able to reach me no matter what."

"Yeah." There was a quiet fondness in the word that nearly stopped Maqui's breath. "I just— I couldn't get through on the other systems, and I wasn't sure this one would work—" There was another voice behind Hope's, elevated and rushed, fighting to get through. It didn't sound like anyone Maqui was familiar with, which made him frown and lean forward on the desk, even if it would have no effect on getting closer to hear them.

"Who's that?" He asked instead, straining to hear.

"That's—" Hope sounded strained. "Lieutenant Mosley."

In the background, Maqui could barely make out words of 'it works?' and 'get me through to Lieutenant Amodar right away!'.

"So you found him, then?" That was a good thing at least, since he was aware that was part of their mission, but somehow it didn't sound like a success when he reviewed Hope's tone and Mosley's attitude. Shouldn't they be using the official comms to contact Amodar? Not to mention, he would have assumed that Miss Lightning would have been the one to do it.

A glance at his monitoring systems proclaimed the all well on the suit communications.

"Yeah. Listen, Maqui." The voice in the background sounded more agitated as their conversation went on, and Hope hurried to speak. "I can't seem to get in contact with Light and the others through the suits, and this is the only thing that works so far. Mosley and I are... well, we're kind of stranded somewhere, and we need to get in contact with the others." He sounded guilty. "Is... I mean, I know that this wasn't made to something like that, but— is it possible to patch us through?"

Stranded? Immediately, his imagination took off at a disturbing pace, trying to figure out just how Hope had managed to get in contact with him in the first place, how the comms device in the suit could have been damaged, and how they could possibly be _stranded_.

"Are you hurt? Are you okay?" He asked, imagining how Hope might have fallen somehow in the gaping holes that Cocoon's buildings were bound to have after the fall, how maybe he had damaged his suit and that means he'd have been _hurt _which was bad enough even knowing that Hope could heal himself, but knowing that if Mosley was there, Hope wouldn't do anything of the sort in case anyone found out about the magic still...

"We're _fine._" Hope insisted, and even the voice in the background dropped off briefly. "Not hurt, I promise. Just... stranded. And in need of help."

"You know I'd help." Maqui confirmed, already reaching to interrupt the communications signal up on Cocoon. The way he had created his systems, it would be a call to Lightning that she could choose to answer or not, but as long as she didn't answer, the call would continue. The device he had created for Hope was on a separate line, but it didn't mean that he couldn't find a way to up the volume so that the other teams would be able to hear it. That way, he'd be a part of the conversation as well. "Hang tight, I'll get you over to Lightning."

Predictably, it took nearly a minute before Lightning answered, sounding irritable and stoic both. "Maqui, what do you want?"

By then, he had found a better speaker to connect to the device for Hope, and cringed back a little at her tone. Man, she really didn't like him..

"Light!" Hope's voice was louder and clearer now, and even Maqui could hear the sharply drawn breath on Lightning's side.

"Hope. Where are you?" Her tone softened considerably, prompting Maqui to make a face at how biased he found that. It wasn't fair, really. "Are you with Maqui?"

"No, my suit's comms wouldn't work so I asked Maqui to help out and—"

"Miss Farron." The other voice interrupted. "This is Lieutenant Mosley. I have an urgent message for Lieutenant Amodar. If I may, I'd like to be patched through immediately."

There was a split second pause on the line, before Lightning instructed. "Patch him through, Maqui."

Damn it. He had been so sure that if the conversation had continued, no one would have noticed that he was still on the line so he could actually listen in...

But she hadn't said anything about him getting off the line, so Maqui reached up to flick a switch that would signal Lieutenant Amodar as well. "Sure thing, Miss Lightning."

It was mere seconds as Lieutenant Amodar picked up, affirming his presence curiously.

"Lieutenant." Mosley stated with respect, enough for Maqui to understand that despite them having the same title, Amodar had more power than the man would admit to. "I've found the residents of Cocoon. They're all safe and accounted for."

"What?" Maqui exclaimed unintentionally, learning closer to the systems. "You serious?"

He pulled back just a second later, though, red as he realized he had unwittingly interrupted the conversation despite Amodar never having assumed otherwise about Maqui being on the line.

Mosley sounded disapproving enough. "Yes. While I've not made a headcount, so to say, there is no panic and there are no unaccounted for persons."

"And where would a populace of nearly ten million have disappeared to?" Amodar asked.

There was a brief silence before Mosley answered, "That would be a complicated answer, Lieutenant."

"And I'd say that I have the time to hear it, Mosley."

"But I may not have the time to explain it." There was a moment where Maqui could hear Hope's voice in the background, not the exact words but definitely the protest in his tone. "There is a virtual reality interface resting atop Cocoon. The activation of it drew the populace within a reality of their choosing, where they've given twenty four hours to decide whether they want to remain or go back to the lives they had."

A virtual reality— had he been drinking, Maqui might have spat his drink out all over his machines. _Virtual reality_. Was that even possible? He knew of illusions, but that was fal'Cie power. The best that humanity had managed to imitate was a mere augmented reality... perhaps holograms, still looking like something computerized. They were years before coming up with things like... like virtual reality or artificial intelligence. Anything like that. That was mere science fiction.

"Another world?" Lightning's voice was incredulous.

"A virtual one." Mosley interjected. "Is that really so hard to believe?"

"Yes!" Maqui spoke up, already trying to come up with how that might work. "That's like saying you discovered time travel or... or that the Pulsian myths were real! We don't have the technology for virtual reality yet— it'd be at least three hundred years before anyone could pull something like that off!"

It was a moment before Mosley's voice appeared back on the line, this time tense and agitated. "Is there really a need for civilians outside of this mission on the line, Lieutenant Amodar?"

"Our current lack of resources require affiliations from means you may not be accustomed to." Amodar said diplomatically. "Please continue, Lieutenant Mosley."

There was a leaden silence before the words continued. "I know that while it may raise questions as to where the bodies of the populace may have disappeared to, I have been given to understand that the console is powered by the intake of physical mass as fuel. There is, however, a twenty-four hour grace period to allow a person to decide whether they want to continue in the virtual reality or whether they want to go back to their lives on the real Cocoon."

"So what you're saying," Amodar spoke carefully into the feed. "Is that we're already too late to save the inhabitants of Cocoon since their bodies have been... burned to sustain the virtual world they're living in?"

"That would be correct, Lieutenant."

Maqui found himself gaping at the conversation, feeling almost as if he couldn't fully comprehend what they were talking about just yet. Virtual reality was unbelievable enough by itself, but to believe that _everyone was gone_; that the entire populace of Cocoon had managed to up and kill themselves rather than live in the real world and face their own problems, was something beyond unbelievable. That was near _ten million people_.

...More than half of their remaining population who just couldn't handle the world without the safeguard of fal'Cie and their old comforts. Was reality really so hard to handle? So cruel to live in? Maqui could understand how hard things had become especially since he was part of the population that had to cope with the sudden disappearance of all the comforts he had once taken for granted; who had ever known that the real sun would be harsh enough to burn their skin? That growing food as a hobby was much harder to sustain when growing food now had to be a way of life?

It was frightening, he understood, to suddenly know that all your once endless supplies were now in danger of being gone forever and that the once safety Cocoon held had been completely shattered because there would be no more fal'Cie to brush away the hurts and provide every resource possible to ensure their well-being and happiness.

It was harder still to comprehend the death toll, to know that _everyone _had lost someone they held dear. Some people just couldn't wrap their mind around it and tried to continue their lives on Cocoon as if the fall hadn't happened at all. Some stayed in grief, and others still, because of fear of the world underneath.

Surely out of those numbers, there would have been a good percentage who would rather live in the real world?

"Lieutenant Mosley," Amodar continued, voice soft. "How long have you stayed in that virtual world?"

Mosley's voice was nonchalant as he responded, "I'd have four hours left, Lieutenant."

There was silence on the line.

"And why have you stayed there?" Lightning's tone was sharp. "Your mission has ended, sir. The objective has been reached. Perhaps you should exit with Mr. Estheim in tow."

_Busted._ Despite not being the target of that tone, Maqui winced sympathetically. Hope was in so much trouble, wasn't he? _Mr._Estheim, indeed.

"That would be problem, Serg- Miss Farron. I'm afraid as the other residents have willingly forgotten the way out of this simulation, there appears to be no exits to this world."

What?

.

* * *

.

The communications tent opened within minutes of the end of their transmission, and Maqui startled to attention as Lieutenant Amodar walked in, face grim. The soldier waved away his clumsy attempt at standing, though, especially since Maqui had covered his work area with dismantled devices and wires.

"I was informed Team NORA had no respect for authority." Amodar said rather jovially, especially considering what they had just been talking about minutes prior. "I don't expect any of you to suddenly develop some in my presence."

The blond boy grimaced, and then chuckled weakly. He wasn't surprised that's what Lightning would have told her commanding officer, even if it wasn't exactly _true_. They just didn't like being told what to do, that was all.

"Sir." Maqui intoned respectfully instead, understanding that he was on this mission under the charge of Amodar. Anything goes wrong, and he would be pulled out, especially as he wasn't military personnel or was he part of the two teams on the surface of Cocoon. And he wanted— no, he _needed _to be a part of this mission when Snow and Lebreau and Gadot were up there. When he still had to prove himself to Sazh and to Miss Lightning, and especially when it seemed as if Hope was stuck in some kind of virtual world along with some jackass of a CO.

Despite their abilities, Team NORA _wasn't_ military. All they had to offer were their own strengths and abilities, and Maqui was a _genius _at mechanics, if he did say so himself.

"I take it you already know what I'm about to ask of you." Amodar said, leaning against a table already staggered under the weight of electronics. "I know it may be an impossible task, but I've been informed the lot of you are rather good at pulling miracles from nowhere."

Miracles. Like surviving the Purge and managing to get at least half of the people there out safe and sound. Like surviving the attack on Eden. Like Snow surviving his Focus.

Like four hours left before the gap closed between a as of yet theoretical world and a dead planet in the sky. Mosley had, apparently, been the top communications officer in this division of the Guardian Corps, and with him stuck up there, it was up to Maqui now to figure out how to get them out.

_Them_. He knew he should have argued harder against Hope going up on the mission, should have thrown a tantrum and insisted on going with the other boy or at the very least— no, there was a million things he could have done differently the previous day and even this morning, but that was over and done with. Right now he had four hours left to solve this puzzle, and he couldn't waste it on thinking up what might have been.

"I'd like to investigate this device myself." Maqui said, as polite as possible. He needed to do so, actually, mostly because no one had the slightest idea how in the world people managed to get transported into some sort of virtual world (a virtual one! It still blew his mind, and he would have liked to savor the thought if only he hadn't a time limit), and if there was just a simple button that could be pressed to reverse the process and get them back.

"I'm afraid there simply isn't enough time to get you up there to fiddle." Amodar responded, waving off the request. "Now the team up there should be able to get all sorts of video for you if that's what you need to recreate a holographic model of it, but without one of them— well, we can't activate the teleportation devices on our own."

Without one of the former l'Cie, Maqui knew Amodar meant. Cie'th Stone teleportation devices only worked for those whom the stones felt a connection with; who had shared the same pains and sorrows as them. Only for those who shared the same magic.

Magic, Maqui had learned several months ago amongst the beauty of the Sulyya Springs, is a devastating power. Even more devastating was the thought that there might have been people before who had been randomly gifted with magic, and then cursed with a task no one alive would want to do. For those people, how much destruction did their rage cause? So much destruction had been suffered on Cocoon just from people who wanted to _help_...

"I can't help if I can't even figure out what's going on." Maqui insisted. "This— this thing is hard enough as it is, especially since you want me to solve a problem that shouldn't be technologically possible at the present age. I mean, who knows the first thing about virtual reality? This tech is _way _more advanced than anything anyone's ever seen, and I'm supposed to have four hours to solve this?"

Although to be honest, he didn't care all that much about the four hour limit. More like he cared about the next twenty hours and what that would mean for Hope. But that was a selfish thought, and one that Maqui wasn't going to acknowledge until those four hours have at least passed.

Amodar gave him a sharp look, as if he could see exactly what Maqui was thinking and didn't approve.

"Then you'll have to make do." The words were sharper than what Maqui had come to expect out of the normally jovial man. "Transport would take far too long and by the time we find the device, there may not be entire time to come up with a method for retrieval."

"But Snow's up there with the device, isn't he?" Maqui pressed, knowing that it couldn't be that hard to find it if there was already a team surrounding that strange thing. "You know where it is!"

"Then get whatever information you can off Mr. Villiers," the lieutenant suggested. "And make it a quick one. I have another team working on this, and while I still think your contribution would be invaluable, I can not hand this jurisdiction to you. You're not military, and on top of that, still considered a child."

Maqui should have probably been angered by that statement (he had a feeling Hope might have bristled and grit his teeth), but he couldn't find it within himself to be angry. Amodar was right: Maqui _wasn't _Guardian Corps, and by all accounts this was a Guardian Corps operation that drew in the help of the former l'Cie. He was just... that extra baggage that came with using that group of peoples.

But he would be baggage that would prove indispensable.

"Yes, sir." He finally relented, shoulders slumping just a bit. Four hours. That meant he didn't have the time to argue, and Amodar knew it.

The lieutenant took a few moments to ensure that Maqui's statement was sincere before he nodded. "Good. I'll leave you to it, then, and check up in ten minutes. See if you can't get something useful off the team we have up there."

_Useful_. Right, as if he could be useful when he was just stuck on the fringe of the situation and then expected to work miracles. But Maqui didn't grumble until the lieutenant had left the tent, when he slumped down in his chair and buried his face in his arms momentarily to groan in self-pity. That lasted only a few seconds, though, before he sat up straight again and stretched quickly before flicking on the channel to the suits up on Cocoon.

He had work to do, and a lot of people to impress.

"Snow?" He called out as he got to the channel, keeping it a private line. Better to get the details off the blond than to risk Lightning's wrath.

It took a second for Snow to respond, voice strained, "Hey kid, what's up?"

"I need to know all the details about that device up there." Maqui said, completely business. "Everything you can tell me, no matter how strange or normal it may be. Materials, shine, wires, energy, _feeling_; anything."

.

* * *

.

They had kept the lines open until there was nothing more that could possibly be said, and then Lieutenant Mosley flicked off the primitive communications device, finally casting Hope a speculative glance.

"Good work," the man admitted, sounding almost reluctant to do so. "What made you think that this transmission would be able to get through?"

Hope winced, not wanting to explain but knowing that the other would hound him for any unshared information. "I found crystal dust on your suit... it was just a theory."

"A theory that the crystal would amplify the signal's power?"

"It was something a friend told me." Just that morning, and Hope wasn't one to normally forget things like that. It had just been a... stressful day so far.

Mosley eyed the glowing green crystal clutched protectively in Hope's hands, and Hope had to fight his instincts to put it completely out of view. It contained far too many questions that he didn't want to answer, and was rather sure he wasn't _supposed _to answer. Lying, however, would be counter-productive to finding a way out of this place.

"That doesn't look like a piece broken off from the pillar." Mosley inquired casually.

"It's not." Hope's tone was terse, and he struggled to find another subject to diffuse the situation. "Should we get to looking around here to see if there are exit points as well? Since we should do something from this side to help and all..."

Mosley gave him a sharp look, but then nodded. "Be back within the hour. Lieutenant Amodar wants regular check-ups from us to ensure we're still here and aware of our situation."

_Aware _being the definitive term, since it seemed like everyone else in this world was just blindly living out their lives. Hope nodded in response and made a quick get-away, taking the bulky comms device seeing as the soldier had no objections to that.

The scientists and soldiers guarding the entrance to the underground areas didn't give him a second glance this time, perhaps now used to his comings and goings. The bright yet cool sunlight of the city didn't give him any relief from the anxiety stemming through his veins, though, knowing that despite being able to establish communications with the outside world, it had only raised questions that he couldn't answer. Perhaps he could claim that the crystal was a relic he kept from his l'Cie days, although he'd be hard-pressed to explain how he managed to bring it here.

A good luck item? He could try and claim such, but Hope had a feeling that Mosley wouldn't be buying the explanation.

A good several minutes of walking to clear his head found him at a popular viewpoint above the shops, overlooking a good portion of the city. The sun was bright overhead, advertisements flickering through the many screens and against the side of buildings. People looked tiny from up there, and Hope leaned cautiously against the chrome railings, pocket heavy with his Eidolon crystal as he fiddled nonsensically with the comms device Maqui had given him.

He knew that he shouldn't be bothering anyway, especially when it was likely Maqui was busy trying to figure out a way to get him out of this place he had accidentally stumbled into, as well as everyone else... and that thought made him press his palm against his eyes tightly. So much for not being a burden— he seemed the most talented when it came to getting into trouble. It could have been amusing, that someone constantly trying hard to _not _get into trouble always was, had it not been for the fact that it was happening to him.

Maybe Mosley had been right in that he should have stayed behind, but it certainly didn't feel like who he _was_. Hope couldn't stand to be left behind, he knew this, and he knew that others who knew him knew it as well.

He tried to imagine it— staying behind because it was what was best for him while everyone else went off and one by one disappeared... how would that have felt?

Horrible.

He didn't want to think about that at all.

It didn't matter what possible good he'd be able to do, he didn't want to be the one staying behind and doing it alone. In fact, he couldn't help but shudder just _thinking _about it.

If that had happened... would he resign himself to living in this kind of virtual world? Where he wouldn't be left alone? He leaned over the railings to gaze at the happy people shopping around underneath, so carefree in their steps. No need to worry about the next day or what it might bring, because everything was provided for already. Their loved ones would be waiting at home for them, and they would get to complain about the mundane things: school and relationships and the next exciting thing that came their way.

Hope didn't complain about school anymore, not when he couldn't seem to find that sympathetic ear who might not look at him differently afterward. He had an image to live up to, and thousands of eyes on him waiting for him to do something wrong and prove that l'Cie just couldn't be redeemed.

How easy would it be to fall back into the lifestyle he had back on Cocoon if given the chance?

He wasn't considering it, not really. His dad was still waiting for him, after all, and Light would be so disappointed. Everyone would be. Not to mention, he wasn't the type to just... give up like that. He couldn't, not after what he had been through. That would just make everything worthless somehow.

But it didn't mean that he couldn't _think _about it.

"Hope?"

He startled, and then froze a moment, not expecting anyone who would know his name here. Especially one who sounded just like—

"_There_ you are. You know, you're not supposed to just run off without telling me like that, young man. I've been looking for you all day, you know. Just leaving a note on the table is the _worst _way to say you're going out. I thought you might have been kidnapped or something. And you even left your phone!"

_Can't be kidnapped if I left a note._The response was on the tip of his tongue, cheerful and smooth with repetition. It was a familiar response to a familiar phrase, but one that he hadn't thought to ever hear again. Hope couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the crowd below as a shadow fell over him, and someone else leaned against the railing next to him, gazing at him fondly.

"...Well?" Nora Estheim asked, obviously expecting the familiar answer from her son. She shifted in concern as Hope failed to respond, and moved closer. "Hope? What's wrong?"

It felt too soon, because he wasn't ready for something like this; hadn't expected that this could be thrown in his face. It had only been a few months (_half a year already_, his mind whispered), and he still hadn't gotten over the gap that had been left in his life. He doubted that he ever would. But with her so close, and _right there _next to him...

He turned around and reached to wrap his arms around her waist in one smooth move, heart thumping as he felt her wrap her around him in confusion, there and _solid_. She was wearing the same yellow sweater she favored, the scent of flowers and home surrounding him as he felt fingers card through his hair.

"Hope? Honey, what's wrong?" She tightened her grip in comfort, making soothing noises. "What happened?"

He hadn't hugged her goodbye; had been far too submerged in his own problems and his own self-pity and despair at being caught up in the Purge that he had just _sat _there while she walked away. In fact, he hadn't made a move to hug her at all the past year since he had thought he'd grown too old for hugs, making sure it was her who assaulted him with hugs and kisses before he had to leave anywhere and not the other way around. Had whinged, even, whenever she insisted on seeing him off to school still and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Whinged, but never rejected any of the displays of affection, and he knew that she understood that whenever she laughed at him for squirming away. She must have understood every time he insisted on doing his homework in the kitchen to keep her company, and whenever he would laze in the same room like a cat while she was cleaning, unwilling to leave the house and 'spend time with friends' like she insisted.

"—Nothing," He breathed out, voice far thicker than he intended it to be, burying his face against her collar. "Everything's okay now. I just missed you."

It had been hard to believe this world was a virtual reality before. It was so much harder now.

He could still feel the weight of the bulky comms device in his hands, though, even as he closed his eyes as he tried to pretend, just for a moment, that it didn't exist. Just for a second, and then he'd return to reality. Just another second.

"I thought you were too old for public hugs." Nora chastised, although there was only humor in her voice. She rubbed soothing circles between his shoulder blades and at the nape of his neck, her fingers cool from the outside air. "Not that this isn't a pleasant surprise, but I would have hardly thought you'd miss me so much after half a day."

Hope relaxed in her embrace, half afraid to let go and half afraid that he wouldn't be able to let go if he didn't do so quickly. "It felt like a lot longer than that."

He could feel the faint tremble of her laughter, and then she drew back just slightly enough to cup his face. "Okay, okay. I'm the best mom ever, and that's why you missed me so much, right? I get it. So anything else happen that I missed? Because best mom or not, which I always am, you don't usually react like that."

"Mom." He echoed, fighting with everything he had to not let his expression crumble in front of her. It didn't seem to matter, though, as her eyes narrowed and her expression grew more serious as she waited for him to say what he needed to. That was just like her, though, to always see right through him. But this wasn't real, and Hope didn't know if this world had managed to draw on his memories or just took a list of everyone who had died during the fall of Cocoon— but he didn't care. "Mom, I missed you. I haven't seen you in—" _Six months, one week, three days_"—too long."

He had meant to tell her. He really had: that this world wasn't real and that she had died, but he was so glad to see her again because he had missed her _so much_, but it felt like the words didn't want to come out of his mouth. He couldn't say that when she was smiling at him like that, concerned and solid right there.

"Now I _know _you're up to something." She said with a smile, although it wavered a bit when he attempted to smile back at her. If anything, she looked more worried than joking. "What are you up to? I'd ask if you were in trouble of some sort, but you never are, are you? So what is it? If you want out on the Bodhum trip, you're not getting it, mister. That's a family thing and you don't get to wiggle your way out of it."

Hope's smile froze at the mention. Even if it wasn't real, even if it would never happen— "Mom... let's not go to Bodhum this year. Why can't we go to Nautilus or something? Somewhere else. There's not much to do at Bodhum anyway, right?"

"Oh, Hope." Nora let out a breath, clearly exasperated. "That's the entire point. Not much to do forces us to spend time together as a family, right? Well, if forces your dad to come along with us on boring trips while we do our best to annoy him to death." She smiled faintly, fondly as her gaze unfocused a moment at the mention of her husband, soft and fond. "It's been too long since we've been able to do that."

Hope shook his head. "He's not going to make it, anyway."

"Don't say that! He booked time off from work, remember? We—" And Hope could remember that it wasn't a _we _so much as he had been standing in a corner scowling and trying not to draw attention to himself while his mom had confronted his dad, "bothered him about it, remember? He called and ensured he'd have the time to spend with us weeks ago."

They had, which had been the most disappointing thing, although Hope still wasn't sure whether he had first been disappointed or _relieved _when Bartholomew had called and said he couldn't make it anymore. Relations between them had been so strained at that point...

Nora sighed. "I know you don't approve, honey, but he's your father and he's honestly trying to do his best for you. For both of us. Is that what this is about?"

"About what?" The sullen response was automatic, and he shook his head afterward. "No! That's not what this is about at all. I just think it'd be a nicer idea to go somewhere else, you know? Anywhere but Bodhum; at least for this year."

Nora made a thoughtful noise, but Hope could tell that she hadn't conceded at all. "Let's discuss this at home. It's not exactly the best argument to be having outside."

That was true, but— _home_. He wanted to go home. He _couldn't_. It was like a bucket of cold water to know that, and to have it offered to him all over again. He could go home if he chose to. It wouldn't even be hard, especially since it was his mom smiling in front of him and offering to take him home. He could go and honestly, who would be able to blame him?

But he wasn't the type to give up; couldn't give him, actually, even if he had to cling to barbed strands. Even if all the world was against him.

"I— can't." And damned if that wasn't the hardest admission he had ever spoken. "I can't go home again, mom."

She dropped her hands from his face, "Don't be so melodramatic, Hope. Whatever you might have said to you father, I'm sure he doesn't hold it against you."

His father. And that's what it call came down to again, wasn't it? Him having disagreed with his father on whether or not he should come up here, disagreeing on whether or not he should stay that safe child and blend in with the background. He wanted to please his dad, he really did. But it just wasn't the type of life he could live. He could do as much as possible, but in the end...

Could he really be left behind?

Mosley seemed to think that he should have stayed behind. Thought that he should have been the obedient child and not disobey his father, and that children had to keep themselves safe. He was supposed to prove himself worthy of the name he had been given, but how was he supposed to do that when he wasn't allowed to go out and take risks? When he wasn't allowed to do anything to prove himself?

Or perhaps this was the type of thing that he was supposed to prove. That without finding himself in trouble, he would have to reject what made him happy. Such as going with his mother.

"Mom." The words felt bitter in his mouth, and he kept a tight grip on her soft sweater, watching the shift of her emotions. "This place isn't real. You're not real. And I want to go home with you, I really do. But I... can't. You're right. Everything you ever said, especially about dad. He always had the best for us in mind, and that's why I can't go."

Bartholomew Estheim had spent the previous half year both mourning for his departed wife and doing his very best to take care of a son he didn't quite know anymore. 'The future for the children', Mosley had quoted, and Hope had realized that despite their unspoken promise to stay within each others' lives, he hadn't made the time to listen to any of his father's speeches. It had been hard enough trying to wait in an empty house and thinking bitterly that for a father who wanted to reunite with his son, he sure wasn't spending enough time trying to do it.

Mending broken bonds, Hope came to a realization, was a two way street. It wasn't just about him playing the good child and doing what his father told him, but maybe trying to understand things from his point of view.

"Honey. You're not making any sense." Nora placed a cool hand on his forehead in concern. "Do you feel sick?"

He didn't want to leave her behind. He couldn't leave her behind, and it didn't matter if it had been over six months since her death. Didn't matter if he knew that she wasn't real, although he couldn't figure out how she was _here_. Was this the reason why no one wanted to leave? Because this world brought back the ones they loved and lost?

"I'm not sick." Even if he could have easily fooled himself into thinking that maybe he had been and had dreamed up the past several months. The weight of the comms device still in his hands claimed otherwise. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch, feeling foolish for needing his mother so much, but...

"This isn't real. This world and the people walking around in it." He gestured around, feeling oddly frantic in his need to make her understand. Maybe if she did, then somehow he'd be able to take her away from this place— take her back home somehow. It wasn't that he wanted to replace her, but damned if he didn't want to change the events of what happened.

(And how easy would it be to pretend that he managed to drag her away from Cocoon before the disastrous event to Bodhum happened?)

_You're not real_. But he couldn't get those words out, no matter how much he tried to convince himself that it was true and something he would need to confront. He swallowed hard, turning his gaze from the crowd outside and the sunshine back toward Nora, who looked more rather worried.

"Hope." She forcibly turned his gaze back to check his eyes, a hand lingering on the side of his head. "That's not funny. If you've been reading those fictional stories about people and dreams again—"

"I haven't." The denial was sharp, much more terse than the tone he would have normally used with her. He could have so easily just given into what she was suggesting and gone home with her, dropping the comms device and forgetting all about Mosley's dilemma. The fact that he could choose that irritated him. He didn't want to be able to choose something like that. It wasn't right. He closed his eyes just a moment and forced the tension away, trying to soften his voice if only because... he had always hated making his mom sad.

How could anyone deal with a world like this one, knowing the truth? It had to be why... why no one could make the decision to leave, and why they all chose to forget the bad things. Forget the real world, and they wouldn't be forced into such a dilemma. And seeing her— Hope could understand why.

He had to break away. Not because he was stronger than those on Cocoon, but because... because his dad was still waiting for him down on the surface of Gran Pulse, probably worried and pacing as he usually did when he had something on his mind. Because of the tension in Lightning's voice when he last heard her over the radio, and the guilt he could imagine on Lebreau and Snow's demeanor. He had people waiting for him away from this world, unlike a good number of people who chose to stay. It wasn't even a choice, not really; if he stayed, it would be nothing more than running away because he was too much of a coward to face the real world.

...Even if he didn't _want _to face the real world and the glares; the sneers and turned faces of people who couldn't stand to breathe the same air as a former l'Cie. Hope couldn't stay because he was better than a coward... wasn't he?

"Mom." He pulled from her embrace, the motion nearly physically painful as he braced himself to never see her again. What would Nora Estheim have said? Have advised him to do? "You're right. Not on the fiction thing, but... I just needed some air. Not because of the vacation."

Her sweater was soft under his gloves, and Hope regretted the obstacle but was also grateful for it knowing it would have been that much harder to let go otherwise.

"Say there's... just a thing. At school, you know. Just hypothetically. What if I didn't feel like I belonged, and I have _friends_ there but it's almost like everyone else there hates me. And not just don't like, but actually _hates _me. If I... If I wanted to be home schooled instead even if I wouldn't be able to see my friends everyday again, would you say yes?"

_Stupid, stupid—_it was a stupid scenario, and he winced the moment he finished asking.

Nora made a thoughtful humming noise and sighed, resting her hands on Hope's shoulders instead since he had pulled himself away to arms length.

"School, huh." She intoned, giving him a knowing look. "I have a feeling this isn't really about school."

"Just... hypothetically."

"Well, then, if it's just _hypothetically_... I'd say you shouldn't worry since you'll be starting high school this year, anyway. And that's a completely different school even if most of the people might be the same and— oh, Hope, I don't know what you're worried about, no one's going to hate you, alright? You're going to make friends and learn new things and complain about homework and hate school, but in the end I'm sure you'll love every bit of it. But." She held up a finger as Hope moved to protest that he wasn't talking about _that_, "If you truly, truly feel that you'd rather take another option... you know I won't stop you. In fact, I will back you up all the way and we'll take the issue to your dad and bully him into it.

"I doubt he'd be very against it, if I'm being honest. He always did think that home school was a better idea."

It was all back to him again, then.

"But Hope," Nora continued, expression softening. "I don't want you to miss out. Even if everything feels like it's terrible, and you think that everyone hates you... you're still going to have the ones who love you. And even if things are hard, it's all a part of life. I know I've always pushed you to be more... social, I suppose. I just want you to be able to experience everything: to learn and laugh and see the world with your own eyes and all the ups and downs that come with that. I know you're always acting so grown up, but right now you're still young and I'm still allowed to look after you—" she paused, and then smiled widely, "Well, I'm _always _going to be looking after you, even when you're all grown up and don't need me anymore."

"I'm always going to need you." He might not have said those words before she died, but that didn't make it any less true. Not when he could constantly feel the gap left in his life, knowing that his mother was gone. It was a wound he doubted would ever fully heal over.

"And now I _know_ you're up to something!" Nora responded cheerfully before falling back into her more serious tone. "You're my baby, you know? Yes, yes, you hate it when I say that, but it's true, and you don't want me recounting tales of when you were in diapers to your friends, then you need to stop making that face every time I tell you — yes, _that _face! — you're always going to be my baby, even when you're old and wrinkly."

"_Mom!_" And oh man, he definitely didn't miss _this_ part of conversations with her because sometimes he was just sure she didn't seem to realize that he was a _boy _and not a little girl to coo over.

"Wrinkles are natural, Hope, and should be revered. It means you've lived long enough to earn them! Or, well, stressed hard enough to earn them, at least. Don't tell your dad the first, since he doesn't like being called old but I'd still call him 'wrinkle face' since he's always so worried about everything and there'd be these lines around his eyes when he makes this face—" and she shifted her expression for an overly exaggerated impression of Bartholomew Estheim's serious face, making it hard for Hope to hide his grin. "—Which is all the time! You'd think he might want to reserve that expression for when he actually needs it rather than having it on default, but it's not like it matters that I tell him that all the time since it's still his default expression."

Her short rant had him covering up his own face in attempts to hide his grin, and she huffed at him a moment before laughing softly.

"Just make sure your expression doesn't default to that as well, Hope. Or you're going to look as funny as I do making that face since we've got the same complexion!"

"Never." He promised, still buoyed from hearing her laugh. Just listening to her made him feel like he could push his worries away for just another moment, and that everything was going to be okay.

"What I mean to say," Nora said, still with the same soft smile, "is that you're old enough to make your own decisions now. And I'll stand by them, even if I don't completely agree with them. Well. Unless you're telling me you'd like to do drugs or something, and then that's a solid _no_, mister, but otherwise... you're my only baby, Hope. And I will always want to see you safe and happy."

"But what if—?" He hesitated, voice humbled by the confidence she had in him. Why had they never had a conversation like this before? Why had he never asked her questions like this? "What if I make the wrong choices? What if I do something wrong, and I can't take it back, and then other people are hurt because of it?"

"Then you'll learn from that choice." Nora responded easily, as if it weren't a question that had been plaguing Hope for months. She always did know exactly what to say, and it was something Hope missed dearly; to be able to confirm his choices and thoughts with her. "And you'll persevere. Things like that happen all to the time, to different degrees. That's what makes the world so interesting, because people continue to make mistakes and then learn from those mistakes. If we didn't, then we wouldn't progress. And then things would stay the same forever, and it'd be so _boring_, wouldn't it?"

It wasn't advice that would solve his problems, _any _of his problems, but it was something so typically her to wave away the easy choices just because there was something more interesting out there. Nora Estheim wouldn't have stayed in the virtual world if given a choice. She wouldn't be the one safe and protected; she'd choose the real world, even if it was harsh and dangerous.

She would choose to pick up the gun.

(And maybe... somewhere deep, deep in his heart... Hope resented her for that. Resented and admired.)

"Yeah." He breathed out in agreement after a few long moments of thought, watching her smile. "You're right. It'd be really boring."

Boring and safe and he could find it within himself to be happy here, forgetting the outside world. But she would be so disappointed if she knew. If he chose her and that safe path where he wouldn't have to face those angry stares. She had laughed at him, once, when he asked why she bothered with real and dirty vegetables when the food generated by Carbuncle had greater nutritional value and was pre-processed to require little to no effort in cooking. He had sighed and called her shameless when she regaled him on how she had wheedled the vegetables for free, and how fascinated she was by grown food.

But that was the real world, wasn't it? The dirty and bug-eaten leaves as opposed to the pre-processed nutrition provided by Cocoon.

Nora must have sensed his conflict as she brushed back his bangs fondly.

"Alright, alright. I get it. You need space to think. I'll let you to it, then. But make sure to be back in time for dinner, okay? _And_," she pressed a thin rod into his palm. "Don't forget your phone again. I don't mind you going out, but I'd like to be able to check up on you if I need to."

"...Right." He agreed, fingers closing over the phone reflexively.

"Be home by dinner," she repeated with a firm look, and Hope found himself unable to respond to that, still as she smiled and walked off, her steps light and content that her life was as normal and ordinary as the next person, and that her son would be home in time for the next meal and her husband would be coming home at night.

He couldn't...

The weight of the phone in his hand was strangely heavy, solid and substantial in a way he knew it couldn't be because his phone had been extraordinarily light. A further glance on the floor revealed the bulky communicator that Maqui had given him, the one he had held so tightly in his hands at the beginning of the conversation and hadn't even noticed he dropped.

It took him a long moment before he moved to retrieve the comms device, the weight of something which should be that much heavier than the phone feeling like nothing at all. His phone was the same one he had before the Bodhum trip, chrome and sleek and easily forgettable to same way most phones on Cocoon tended to be. There was nary a blemish on it, or personalizations to make it his own. He had never cared too much about things like that, and had been content to have the latest features and applications.

The black comms device, on the other hand...

He traced gloved fingertips over the rough edges; parts that had been hastily screwed together, some parts not of the same size as others. It was limited and rough, bulky with some chipped edges that spoke of parts that had been taken apart and then put together many times. Maqui had tried to pass it off as something inconsequential when he handed the device to him, but it had been so easy to see through that. Despite the rough exterior, it had managed to do more than even the best gear that the military could offer. He doubted his old phone could have done anything like that.

Had it really been just this morning when he had stared into a mirror and wondered if he was doing the right thing? Wondered if his mom would be proud? He had woken up today determined to do something right and trying so hard to shake off the vestiges of a nightmare, one where he had _failed _and all the world was wrong.

Hope leaned against the railing and breathed out a long breath, mind swirling even as he slid slowly to sit on the ground, two separate methods of communication in both hands.

It wasn't even a choice, right? He wanted his mom to be proud of him, and he already knew which choice she would have made. He knew which one was the _right_ one, if there was a right choice in this situation. It shouldn't be— shouldn't be this _hard_. He wasn't going to fail and he was going to prove himself and make sure everything would be all right. As all right as it could ever be.

During the Purge, he should have stood up. Should have made the right choice and not just cowered like a scared child. Now, he was wiser and he would face the choice head on because cowering wasn't an option and if he did, it would just mean he had learnt nothing at all from everything that had happened. That he had learned nothing from his mom's death, and from the deaths of one third of the population. He shouldn't even be scared. This was nothing like back then.

But for some reason... staring at his hands and listening to the happy sounds of people in the background, Hope felt as lost and alone as he had back at the Hanging Edge.

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**End Day 2, part 4**

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**AN:** ..I have no excuse: I am just made of le suck. This just took forever and nothing really happened and even that moment for Hope and Maqui was halted because there were ~_more important things~ _going on. Oops? This is, like, Nora chapter. This is just a chapter dedicated to making Hope feel bad because he's got to be better than to choose the easy path (and let's be honest, I know _I'd_ choose the easy path. Virtual reality? Count me in!). Promise, things will actually happen in the next chapter! What a slow story, huh?


End file.
